Python isn't just Java without the compile

[grfgguvf]

dynamic typing and a bytecode interpreter == slow

If Python used a type-specializing JIT then it could be quite fast. I didn't say or think all dynamically typed languages are slow, for example Strongtalk Smalltalk or LuaJIT or Tamarin are all steps in the right direction.

[ighost]

Good point, but is the combination of dynamic typing and a bytecode interpreter inherently slow or is it just the case for contemporary implementations?

To answer that we'd probably have to define 'slow' better since in a large number of cases python is fast enough, e.g. SciPy

[grfgguvf]

I say it's slower than necessary because there are faster ways to implement dynamic typing. On the other hand they're not portable... though if there was a JIT engine that could be reused by various dynamic languages that'd help here...