On 5 Nov., 04:42, "D.Hering" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Nov 3, 9:02 pm, Jens <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > I'm starting a project indatamining, and I'm considering Python and > > Java as possible platforms. > > > I'm conserned by performance. Most benchmarks report that Java is > > about 10-15 times faster than Python, and my own experiments confirms > > this. I could imagine this to become a problem for very large > > datasets. > > > How good is the integration with MySQL in Python? > > > What about user interfaces? How easy is it to use Tkinter for > > developing a user interface without an IDE? And with an IDE? (which > > IDE?) > > > What if I were to use my Python libraries with a web site written in > > PHP, Perl or Java - how do I intergrate with Python? > > > I really like Python for a number of reasons, and would like to avoid > > Java. > > > Sorry - lot of questions here - but I look forward to your replies! > > All of my programming is data centric. Data mining is foundational > there in. I started learning computer science via Python in 2003. I > too was concerned about it's performance, especially considering my > need for literally trillions of iterations of financial data tables > with mathematical algorithms. > > I then leaned C and then C++. I am now coming home to Python realizing > after my self-eduction, that programming in Python is truly a pleasure > and the performance is not the concern I first considered to be. > Here's why: > > Python is very easily extended to near C speed. The Idea that FINALLY > sunk in, was that I should first program my ideas in Python WITHOUT > CONCERN FOR PERFOMANCE. Then, profile the application to find the > "bottlenecks" and extend those blocks of code to C or C++. Cython/ > Pyrex/Sip are my preferences for python extension frameworks. > > Numpy/Scipy are excellent libraries for optimized mathematical > operations. Pytables is my preferential python database because of > it's excellent API to the acclaimed HDF5 database (used by very many > scientists and government organizations). > > As for GUI framework, I have studied Qt intensely and would therefore, > very highly recommend PyQt. > > After four years of intense study, I can say that with out a doubt, > Python is most certainly the way to go. I personally don't understand > why, generally, there is any attraction to Java, though I have yet to > study it further.
Thanks a lot! I agree, Python is a pleasure to program in. So what you're saying is, don't worry about performance when you start coding, but use profiling and optimization in C/C++. Sounds reasonable. It's been 10 years ago since I've done any programming in C ++, so I have to pick up on that soon I guess. I've used NumPy for improving my K-Means algorithm, and it now runs 33% faster than "pure" Python. I guess it could be improved upon further. I will have a look at PyQt! -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
