Language Speed Debates

Cluster focuses on debates about whether programming languages are inherently fast or slow, emphasizing that performance depends on implementations, algorithms, and coding practices rather than the language itself, often challenging comparisons to C/C++.

📉 Falling 0.5x Programming Languages
6,409
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#7025
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
23
2008
83
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2011
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2012
315
2013
407
2014
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2015
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2018
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Keywords

e.g PHP ML JavaScript PIL ycombinator.com HPC IPP languages language performance programs perl fast implementations fastest faster speed

Sample Comments

swah Nov 30, 2011 View on HN

But there are no fast languages, only fast implementations...

voidUpdate Jan 14, 2026 View on HN

Depends what you're doing with it... You can make any language you want slower than another language by using it badly

vlang1dot0 Apr 17, 2022 View on HN

No, "it's fast because it's C" doesn't hold. You can write slow code in any language.

ashishb4u Jun 26, 2011 View on HN

when will people stop comparing languages based on their runtime speeds?

"and it ran as fast as C++" (emphasis added)

lionkor Apr 2, 2023 View on HN

You shouldnt need to make noticable compromises to get performance in any reasonably efficient language/tooling

nukeop Jan 30, 2018 View on HN

The "high performance" claim is misleading, when there are languages like C.

drhowarddrfine Jan 10, 2010 View on HN

Is every language claiming to be faster than C now?

darkstalker Jul 26, 2012 View on HN

The speed of a language depends on it's implementation, not on the language itself

jheriko Jun 4, 2023 View on HN

could have made a language faster than C in 0.1x the amount of time