[NMLUG] Python tight loop causing massive CPU barfage

[jack at xiph.org (Jack Moffitt)]

> Yes, I believe Perl will be much faster - but only because it's IO stuff 
> is supposedly more highly optimized than Pythons.

I doubt this.  They both use C-level stdio afaik. 

Python's biggest speed problem is in tight loops which make function
calls.  Can you eliminate one or two of those?  Calling a function is
pretty much the most expensive operation in the language.

jack.