[x3tm]

Exactly. That's why I say that the speed argument is a bit obsolete by now. We can have the best of the two worlds with python! Elegance/simplicity and speed.

The focus on the speed of execution also downplays two other important aspects of python: speed of writing code and possibility to visualize results easily. As a theorist these two aspects outweigh any argument in favor of Fortran. The only serious competition to python for me is mathematica.

[TheRealKing]

The truth is, any language other than Fortran/C is slow for any serious high-performance-computing task (which is not the same as everyday back-of-envelop calculations and plotting).