| >"Typical speedups over Python are on the order of 10-100x or more, on a single thread. Codon's performance is typically on par with (and sometimes better than) that of C/C++" Nice! A super-fast compiler LLVM compiler for Python! Well done! You know, if Python is one of the world's most popular languages, and it was originally implemented as a dynamic and interpreted language (but fast compilers can be written for it, as evinced by Codon!) -- then maybe it would make sense to take languages that were implemented as compilers -- and re-implement them as dynamic interpreted languages! Oh sure -- that would slow them down by 10x to 100x! But, even though that would be the case -- the dynamic interpreted versions of the previous compiled-only language -- might be a whole lot more beginner friendly! In other words, typically in dynamic interpreted languages -- a beginner can use a REPL loop or other device -- to make realtime changes to a program as it is running -- something that is usually impossible with a compiled language... The possibilities for easy logging, debugging, and introspection of a program -- are typically greater/easier -- in interpreted dynamic languages... Oh sure, someone can do all of those things in compiled languages too -- but typically the additional set-up to accomplish them is more involved and nuanced -- beginners typically can't do those things easily! So, I think when I think about programming languages from this point forward -- I'm going to think about them as having "two halves": One half which is a compiled version. And another half -- which is a dynamic interpreted version... Usually when a new programming language is created in world, it is created either as a compiled language or as a dynamic interpreted language -- but never both at the same time! Usually it takes the work of a third party to port a given language from one domain to the other, usually from dynamic interpreted to compiled, but sometimes (as is sometimes the case with scripting languages derived from compiled languages), sometimes in the reverse! Point is: There are benefits to be derived from each paradigm, both dynamic interpreted and compiled! So why do we currently look at/think about -- most computer languages -- as either one or the other? I'm going to be looking at all computer languages as potentially both, from this point forward... (Related: "Stop Writing Dead Programs" by Jack Rusher (Strange Loop 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ab3ArE8W3s&t=1383s) |