I like Python for the speed of development. Also, at least for these internal apps, speed is generally of secondary concern, since these aren't typically high load applications.
At reddit we solved the problem by writing the most often called parts in C and using c extensions. There is definitely more work to do there, but overall I think Python gets a bad rap as far as speed is concerned.
It's certainly not the quickest, but it isn't a dog either.
> At reddit we solved the problem by writing the most often called parts in C and using c extensions.
I'm wondering if anyone has solved these sorts of problems with Cython in the real world. It looks like a great solution for a large set of problems in terms of Python performance, since it becomes a CPython extension, but I never hear anyone talk about it. Can anyone chime in?
Cython is used all over the place in some parts of the real world, but you may not hear about those parts because they are not that connected to web app development.
The entire scientific Python ecosystem has basically moved on to Cython. Its use is quite prevalent, and it's basically displacing SWIG as the preferred wrapping tool of choice.
I get the impression that Cython is used quite a bit in the scientific computing side of Python, but not so much for web development. pandas & pyzmq are two projects I know that make serious use of Cython.
Comments
I like Python for the speed of development. Also, at least for these internal apps, speed is generally of secondary concern, since these aren't typically high load applications.
At reddit we solved the problem by writing the most often called parts in C and using c extensions. There is definitely more work to do there, but overall I think Python gets a bad rap as far as speed is concerned.
It's certainly not the quickest, but it isn't a dog either.
> At reddit we solved the problem by writing the most often called parts in C and using c extensions.
I'm wondering if anyone has solved these sorts of problems with Cython in the real world. It looks like a great solution for a large set of problems in terms of Python performance, since it becomes a CPython extension, but I never hear anyone talk about it. Can anyone chime in?
Cython is used all over the place in some parts of the real world, but you may not hear about those parts because they are not that connected to web app development.
The entire scientific Python ecosystem has basically moved on to Cython. Its use is quite prevalent, and it's basically displacing SWIG as the preferred wrapping tool of choice.
I get the impression that Cython is used quite a bit in the scientific computing side of Python, but not so much for web development. pandas & pyzmq are two projects I know that make serious use of Cython.
Sage [1] (which you might say is the birthplace of Cython) makes a very serious use of Cython as well.
[1] http://sagemath.org
Thanks for the information!