

The Fallacy of High Level Languages - smanek
http://www.netsplit.com/2009/03/26/the-fallacy-of-high-level-languages/

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pavelludiq
I like C, and I love Python. Python programmers already found a good solution
to this conflict, rewrite slow code in C, write the rest in Python. And they
do this not because they are not macho enough to write it all in C, but
because that way they can have all the advantages of fast code and useful
abstractions. C is just as useful as Python, just not for the same things.

~~~
ezy
I hear this often, and I'd love for this to be true, but python needs it's GIL
to be removed for this to be the case. In particular, doing this with
reasonable performance in a multi-threaded app (which is most of them these
days), is basically impossible.

At the level of one-shot scripts calling C code, or event driven apps where
there is an entirely separate C component running in parallel -- it works for
the most part. But with the most well-supported versions of python, you cannot
have various python/C mixtures running in parallel without a lot of annoying
(inefficient) legwork.

It's not a generally suitable solution, unfortunately.

------
wglb
"I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Rich is better" (originally said by
Beatrice Kaufman) might apply here. I have programmed significant systems in
assembler, Fortran, RPG, Cobol, C, C++, Smalltalk, Python, and Lisp.

The advantages of higher-level languages are unmistakable. There are stories
of pairwise comparisons of each of the sequential pairs in this list. In
higher-level languages, I found I was producing solutions at a pace
unthinkable in lower-level languages.

------
miked
High-level languages are the single most important breakthrough in the history
of software engineering. That's because they enable a _tremendous compression
of meaning_.

Languages, both natural and artificial, have two purposes: thinking and
communication. Maximizing both of those depends on maximizing clarity while
minimizing noise (including extraneous text). HLLs help achieve both. That's
why most everybody uses them.

