[thu]

From the post:

  For a more powerful example (lifted straight from the Julia docs), we can compare Julia and R code for computing the 25th Fibonacci number recursively.

How is it a powerful example? How is it meaningful when comparing programming languages (and implementations)? Maybe it is just a 4/1 joke? Or is it really meaningful for people who otherwise use R?

[dfc]

500 > 75

In the context of speed, 500 times slower is more dramatic than 75 times slower.

[mhartl]

500 > 75

I don't think anyone has trouble with the arithmetical inequality. The issue is that the recursive Fibonacci number algorithm is notoriously unrealistic (it's exponential in its argument, growing as φ^n). Because of this, the claim that the example is more "powerful" is a little dubious.