[Info-vax] Python for x86?

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 4/13/2023 10:50 AM, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
> Den 2023-04-13 kl. 15:24, skrev 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.
> 
> Are my post about standard-CGI vs. "loadable modules" lost?

No. It is there. And it is all true. CGI is not an efficient
method to run code.

But Neil wrote "python does a really good job supporting server-side
scripting under apache cgi-bin" and I assumed that to be correct
with "If both are run via CGI mechanism then script activation
should be the same". The assumption for all of the above is that
Python is being run via CGI similar to Basic.

If that is not the case, then we have a very good explanation.

Arne