Is Jython faster than Python?

Question

I'm trying to get a little program to send hex over RS232. From what I've seen Python is a very good language to do this with.

I learned it 3 years ago in an into to compsci course as a freshman in high school, and the syntax is amazing. It's pretty much like pseudo code.

However ever since freshman year I have been working with Java, Objective-C (god bless my poor soul), and C#.

Anyway, I would like to use Python for learning how to use serial communication. Now that I am looking at it again I have "discovered" Jython which appears to be python but it uses the Java run time (is that correct?)

Will I be happier using something such a Jython rather than good-old Python? Or for such a "little" task as sending hex over serial ports will I not notice a difference?

If you are going to downvote my question can you please at least tell me why? -- thank you.

Answer 1

For one of my projects, I decided to benchmark Jython, CPython and Pypy using the project's innermost loop. Jython was a little slower than CPython with Cython, but faster than unaugmented CPython. In general, Jython is respectably fast for long processes, but it takes a while to get started.

If you want to use Jython, go ahead and use Jython. Python != CPython anymore.

Here's the comparison _for_one_microbenchmark_: http://stromberg.dnsalias.org/~strombrg/backshift/documentation/performance/index.html

Answer 2

Like you said, Jython is Python implemented on top of JVM, see Jython As far as I can tell, it's usually slower than CPython(which is what you call the good-old python).

The real advantage of Jython is that it can import and use any Java class (and the same applies for .NET and IronPython).