Is Python's "values don't change, they get replaced by new ones stored elsewhere" approach what makes it slow?
I would like to see some micro-benchmarks which pin down the bottlenecks.
For example, this minimal benchmark with one variable and a few control structures:
x=0
for i in range(int(10e6)):
if i<50: x=x+1
print (x)
Runs 5 times slower here than the same in PHP: $x=0;
for ($i=0; $i<10e6; $i++)
if ($i<50) $x++;
echo "$x\n";
Tested with: time python3 loop.py
Which gives me 0.31sAnd:
time php loop.php
Which gives me 0.06sA factor of five seems to be roughly the average when comparing Python to PHP for a bunch of different code constructs I tried.