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    $\begingroup$ @babou Agreed, very nice explanation. So what would be a better metric, or perhaps set of metrics, that can be used to compare languages with their respective compiler / interpreters? Also, a minor nitpick : you say "There is no such thing as a slow or fast language" and then "Python itself is horribly slow", but I assume you meant the Python interpreter. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 23, 2015 at 14:03
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    $\begingroup$ @benalbrecht My point is that there is no single good set of such metrics. It's a trade-off, always. If you build device drivers, you want to be correct above all things. If you build Twitter's backbone, you want to be efficient above all else. In both cases, you use the tools and hire the people that allow for that. If you are an Android-app-tinkering startup, you use what your people know and/or what minimises your time-to-market. If you teach algorithms, you want a language with concise, clear syntax and little boilerplate. And so on. Priorities differ, and so we have different languages. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 23, 2015 at 14:08
  • $\begingroup$ See also this tangentially related question. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 23, 2015 at 14:08