[TUHS] lisp challenge

[Toby Thain]

On 2018-02-16 5:56 PM, Arthur Krewat wrote:
> Has ANY language (except assembler) EVER outperformed C in a big way?
> 
> Give or take any optimizations that may be done by either?
> 


As Tim wisely pointed out, performance isn't a property of a language,
but a program, so the idea that C is some kind of untouchable ultimate
in speed makes no sense. There are aspects of its design that militate
_against_ performance and preclude optimisations that are possible in
other languages.

Therefore nobody should be shocked that programs in other languages
certainly _have_ beaten C for the same tasks. An illuminating example is
the Haskell Mio system which has benchmarked to outperform C web
servers. Expect more progress from that direction.

--Toby