[jpedrosa]

Let us see how PHP and Ruby compare out of the box versus Java:

First PHP vs Java: http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32q/benchmark.php?test=al...

Now Ruby 1.9 vs Java: http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32q/benchmark.php?test=al...

And finally Ruby 1.9 vs PHP: http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32q/benchmark.php?test=al...

So, both PHP and Ruby 1.9 have a hard time when trying to keep up with Java and in these tests Ruby seems to have an edge over PHP. Not to mention that Yahoo one of the biggest enterprises on the web uses a lot of PHP for their services, but there are ways to further optimize PHP so who knows what each user can do to improve performance.

My point in bringing PHP into the spotlight is just to show that there are other languages that a priori were just as slow as Ruby but given their niche have had enough success to endure "slowness" criticisms.

The languages that are considered fast have often to face potent competitors which make for an immersive experience seeing them develop in the marketplace. Ocaml what, I hear you say?

[kragen]

Ruby 1.9 is a big improvement over Ruby 1.8, but last I heard, a lot of people still had to use 1.8. In six months maybe "Ruby is slow" will no longer be a valid argument for PHP over Ruby, but if you're using Ruby 1.8, it's still valid.

PHP, and I say this as someone who thinks it's awesome, isn't so much a language as a way to glue together a bunch of C libraries, so its speed isn't that important.

[Andys]

One of the reasons Ruby 1.9 adoption is so slow is that the people who really needed speed have long since moved on. 1.8 is still good enough for most of us who use Rails every day.