[shakow]

> You are comparing quality of implementation, not languages.

But comparing languages in a vacuum has 0 value. Maybe some alien entity will use physic transcending time and space to make TCL the fastest language ever, but right now I won't be writing heavy data-processing code in it.

[pjmlp]

At the same time, comparing without acknowledging that it is an implemenation issue, it is also not being fully honest.

For example, comparing languages with LLVM based implementations, usually if the machine code isn't the same, reveals that they aren't pushing the same LLVM IR down the pipe, and has little value for what the grammar actually looks like.

[shakow]

> comparing without acknowledging that it is an implemenation issue

Because that's implicit at this point – I'm not going to prefix with “because Earth geometry is approximately Euclidian at our scale” every time I'm telling a tourist to go straight ahead for 300m to their bus station.

Just like when people say “C++ is fast”, of course they refer to clang/g++/msvc, not some educational university compiler.

[pjmlp]

I seriously doubt it, given how many discussions go on HN or similar sites, revealing a complete lack of knowledge in compiler design.

Of course the authors of many of such comments aren't to blame, they only know what they know, hence why https://xkcd.com/386/