[Info-vax] Python for x86?

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 4/13/2023 8:26 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2023-04-13, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>> On 4/13/2023 6:44 AM, Neil Rieck wrote:
>>> And although python is used to do a lot of admin scripting on Linux
>>> platforms (tools like "yum" and "firewall-cmd" are written in
>>> python), python does a really good job supporting server-side
>>> scripting under apache cgi-bin. I don't know how this is possible,
>>> but python programs are faster than compiled DEC-BASIC programs
>>> started via apache.
>>
>> That is unexpected. If both are run via CGI mechanism then
>> script activation should be the same. And compiled code should be
>> faster than interpreted code. And if libraries used are also the
>> same then it is a mystery.
>>
> 
> Maybe. Maybe not. Based purely on some comments from people here who
> know/use DEC Basic, it's quite possible that DEC Basic has a RTL which
> imposes some serious runtime overheads.

VMS Basic is a language with a high level of abstraction
so more "happens under the hood" than in C/Fortran/Cobol.

There are some overhead due to that.

Obvious example is strings. VMS Basic use dynamic
strings. The RTL does some work there.

But Python is even more high level and does similar
work - including the equivalent of dynamic strings.

But it is still interpreted (for standard Python
implementation) while VMS Basic get compiled.

Only thing in Pythons favor is that there must
be spent 1000 times more effort optimizing Python
libraries than optimizing VMS Basic RTL.

Arne