Ask HN: What makes a programming language fast?

1 points by calderarrow ↗ HN

3 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 6.9 ms ] thread
One factor is time spent on optimizing the compiler or interpreter. In addition to having its own free Python distribution, Intel produces C++ and Fortran compilers. Although it charges for those compilers, I think the main reason it has created them, even though gcc exists, is to increase peformance on its hardware.
- Whether it is compiled or interpreted

- How abstract it is / what 'advanced' features it provides

- The compiler

Can one use the many advanced features of C++ without incurring a speed penalty compared to C?