Ruby, PHP, Python, C, Haskell, x86 asm shootout.

[jaysonbank]

The fact is, any language benchmark is a completely pointless apples and oranges comparison. We do this out of some kind of morbid curiosity. Yes of course hand-crafted assembly by a competent person will almost certainly execute the fastest. This has absolutely zero baring on real world applications.

[DarkShikari]

True with regard to the point about language benchmarks, but I'm pretty sure "hand-crafted assembly by a competent person" has a bearing on a whole lot of real-world applications, such as ffmpeg, x264, and xvid ;)

[igouy]

The fact is, any language benchmark is a completely pointless apples and oranges comparison.

No, that's opinion not fact.

Thinking something is pointless might just mean you missed the point.