Hi Peter, Peter wrote:
>But what was very strangely for me that there were advices to program for >gnome in Python or C#. IIRC these languages do not need their >programs to be compiled (sorry I fogot the right term) to run them. So >this are the different languages, and if we want fast program (desktop) >it's better to avoid such languages. Did I miss anything? So why there >were such advices? > > This could become a contentious topic (compiled vs interpreted languages). You're correct that in many instances an interpreted language will run "slower", simply because it has extra overhead in processing the code before (or while) it is being executed. However, there are benefits to higher level languages (eg: often better portability, ease of development, ease of implementing better algorithms, etc) that can outweigh these drawbacks. If you want to see whether languages such as Python or Ruby are slower than plain C for desktop applications then why not check out some of the Gtk examples for these three languages? On my machine (a dismally under-powered Intel Mobile Celeron 2.2GHz) I can't see any particularly noticeable difference in responsiveness between them. I have had the (perhaps unusual) experience of developing an application with the same functionality under both the old Win32 "Microsoft Foundation Classes" and pygtk. The application is used to display strain gauge data sampled at 40Hz from 9 separate channels in real time. Despite the pygtk version containing custom widgets, the drawing of which is actually processed in Python, it *still* isn't slow enough for me to need to use a compiled language! The pygtk version is much less code than the Win32 version, and much nicer to read and maintain. So, an important question is whether the additional speed that may *perhaps* be possible with a compiled language is worth the extra code, time and effort that is necessary? Is the speed difference even noticeable? Which solution is more modular? Which can be modified most easily? Which is easiest for a new developer to understand? These are all questions that are probably far more important in the long run than an extra few hundred milliseconds here and there that an end user may need to endure. -- Jonathan Merritt. PhD Student - Equine Biomechanics, The University of Melbourne, Veterinary Clinical Centre, Werribee. _______________________________________________ gnome-devel-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-devel-list
