Re: Challenge for speed freaks
Ray Smith writes:
> With the processing power of pc's these days is speed a real issue?
> Except for specialized applications like action games, 3d modelling,
> simulations etc speed is almost a non issue.
I just finished crunching 17 Mb of log data from RapidEuphoria.com
The log records each page hit, each .zip downloaded, etc, along with
the referring URL, IP address etc. etc.
My Euphoria program took 1 minute to give me lots of interesting
highly customized information. Would I want to wait half an hour
for Python or Perl? (My ISP has a free log analyzer. It provides lots of
data, but little useful information that I need to evaluate sources of
advertising.)
Speed will always be valuable.
Irv Mullins writes:
> I'll agree, Euphoria is generally (but not always) faster than Python, or
> Perl, or Java or......[feel free to add almost any other language here]
> I would like to see comments, especially from Rob, on these questions:
> Why, if Euphoria is so much faster, are there hundreds or
> thousands of people who use perl, python, or java, etc. for every
> person who uses Euphoria.
Java:
Sorry, I don't have one billion dollars to spend on marketing.
Perl:
I used to work on UNIX systems back in the 80's when
Perl came out. It was something of a novelty, being open source
and free. It filled the gap between slow shell scripts and compiled C.
There weren't many alternatives. Since there were so many
different flavors of UNIX and so many different CPU's, it was
a practical necessity for any widespread language to be open source.
Nobody had the time to personally support binary executables for dozens
of UNIX platforms. In short, by giving away Perl for free in source form,
Larry Wall filled a gap that was there. It didn't really matter if Perl was
particularly good, or what programming philosophy it had.
Python:
Someone said Python was started 3 years before Euphoria.
So I guess it has been around 12 years.
Python is another a UNIX-based language. It seems to be
gaining market share from Perl. Perl is a grab bag of
ad hoc features with no concept behind it. Python tries
to be more sophisticated.
Euphoria was released for Linux (a subset of the UNIX world)
only 2 years and 2 months ago. It will take time to win over
the open source, everything must be totally free, crowd.
> Why do the bookshelves contain dozens of books
> on perl, python, and java, etc. but none for Euphoria?
Of course they have more users, and
maybe things have changed, but the free, on-line documentation
for Perl and Python, as of a couple of years ago, was terrible
(probably to promote books sales) Also, these languages
are much "bigger" and much more complicated,
so people feel a strong need to run out and buy a book.
Paper is a rather archaic medium, and as soon as a new release
comes out, a paper book is obsolete.
> Why do computer magazines run articles on these
> other languages, but make no mention of Euphoria?
Computer magazines have mentioned Euphoria,
but again you are just milking the number of users issue.
> Could it be that *fast* just isn't the most important
> criteria for most programmers?
That's what I say to all the C/C++ programmers 
> I don't buy the argument that marketing makes the difference,
> either - a lot of money has been spent to promote Java,
> but the rest? Not that I know of.
OK Irv, you win.
Since Euphoria isn't the most "popular" language in the world,
there must be something tragically wrong with it,
and I might as well quit.
You should go to Salt Lake City and tell all the athletes
who didn't get a medal that they've wasted their time
and should quit too.
Regards,
Rob Craig
Rapid Deployment Software
http://www.RapidEuphoria.com
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