[awm]

Ah, I see. I'm no expert, but I'd argue the response is "Maybe".

I think this is what blaze and pypy try to do with python: they compile it so that certain things are optimized. The harder part is that you have to generally hint for the compiler to truly be the best...

WRT to just why not use C, python/R/Julia are MUCH easier to prototype in than C (in my opinion, having used those languages). The "grail" is to be able to prototype quickly, and then identify the hotspots to speed up (which, in Julia's case, would be just inlining with C code).