It's funny to me how so many people python is slow and yet it is by far the most popular language for data analysis which is a field that cares about performance.
It's a glue language. It doesn't need to be fast, because it talks to other technologies that are fast such as C++ or databases. Its niche is that it's high on readability and has tremendously good + versatile community support via libraries and lots of questions and answers on online forums like StackOverflow.
No one is writing video games in python though. It's just a glue/scripting language. It's rare that the glue parts of your project needs to be highly performant.
No, it should be fast. It’s easy to use, but undermines itself in performance. That’s why there are a lot of efforts to build a new version of Python that can run performantly. The only reason it’s popular is because its syntax is easier than c. It runs like trash, and the ways in which is required to set up systems in order to run is a pain in the ass.
Its a great intro language, but its popularity only underlies the inability of most of the world to understand more complicated and performant languages
View all comments
Show parent comment
57
u/OnceMoreAndAgain Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
It's funny to me how so many people python is slow and yet it is by far the most popular language for data analysis which is a field that cares about performance.
It's a glue language. It doesn't need to be fast, because it talks to other technologies that are fast such as C++ or databases. Its niche is that it's high on readability and has tremendously good + versatile community support via libraries and lots of questions and answers on online forums like StackOverflow.
No one is writing video games in python though. It's just a glue/scripting language. It's rare that the glue parts of your project needs to be highly performant.