[masklinn]

> When somebody says a language is 'slow' they mean on typical hardware, under some common operating system, using the implementations available

So when somebody says a language is "slow", it's as when somebody says a language is "weakly typed", he picks arbitrary and unspecified parameters fitting what he wants the result to be, and then declares he was right?

> Everybody knows this.

Yes, just as everybody knows what "weakly typed" is (it's just completely different from one person to the next).

> You're dissembling

That word. I'm not sure it means what you think it does.

> because your favorite language is slow.

Not even sure where that one comes from.

[0xABADC0DA]

So when somebody says a language is "slow" ... he picks arbitrary and unspecified parameters fitting what he wants the result to be, and then declares he was right?

That's natural language for you, but if you try to understand what the assumptions are behind a statement then you have a good chance of coming to an agreement.

"It's a nice day today"

"Actually, a day is a unit of time it's the weather that is nice"

That's what you are doing.