From: gene.ressler@gmail.com   
      
   fermineutron wrote:   
   > It is generally the belief that high level languages are slower than   
   > the low level languages. It seems to me that there are 2 possible   
   > reasons for it. ...   
      
   > I am curious about the fraction of the speed penalty of HLL which in   
   > no way can be reduced by more inteligent programing or certain   
   > compiler swiches   
      
   Their methodology is fraught with peril, but some of the on-line   
   pseudo-competitions are very interesting to look at:   
      
   http://shootout.alioth.debian.org   
      
   Note e.g. that OCAML is doing well even compared to C/C++ (gcc).  In   
   all, it looks like the penalty for high-levelness has been pretty much   
   subsumed by the penalty of not being a huge industrial standard or open   
   source project---so that immense resources can be directed at compiler   
   refinements (e.g. C/C++ and gcc) and language tweaks (e.g. Java).   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)