Investigation: downsides of being generic and correct

[John Colvin]

On Friday, 17 May 2013 at 08:28:38 UTC, Jacob Carlborg wrote:
> On 2013-05-16 21:54, Walter Bright wrote:
>
>> We should also be aware that while Python code itself is slow, 
>> its
>> library functions are heavily optimized C code. So, if the 
>> benchmark
>> consists of calling a Python library function, it'll run as 
>> fast as any
>> optimized C code.
>
> But someone using Python won't care about that. Most of them 
> will think they just use Python and have no idea there's 
> optimized C code under the hood.

I'm not sure how we can respond to that.

If naive D code has to be significantly faster than optimised C 
for people to not go "D sucks, it's only as fast as python" then 
we're pretty much doomed by peoples stupidity.