Misc info for a newbie

[ddainese@dsi.unive.it]

Hi,

I'm writing a multi-threaded nntp news-sucker (similar to suck) using
Python; Python it's really a pretty language, but unfortunately it's a
bit slow.

Thus I'm considering other alternatives; being a good GNU citizen ;) I
would like to use Guile for my project, but I'm an absolutely newbie
with this language (and with Scheme too), and thus I'm looking for
some specific informations and some opinions:

- Is Guile suitable as a scripting language like perl and Python, or
his primary goal is to be an extension language?

- How the Guile performance compare in respect to other languages such
as Python, perl or plain C?
I've tried the `choose' script in the tutorial, and it is 8 times more
slow in Guile than in python, but I think that this slowness is due to
the fact that Guile has an higher startup time; I need more concrete
example/benchmark.

- Is the Guile speed going to improve significantly over the time, or
his speed is already near the optimum nowadays?

- There will be a Guile -> C compiler in the future? Python
can't have one because of the dynamic nature of the language that make
a compiler useless.

- Is the Guile support for thread and socket ready for real World
applications? Can I reach performance similar to those of C in the
throughput of a networked application over a LAN, and over a telephone
PPP link?

I have many more questions, but for this time I'll stop here ;)

Thanks in advance, bye

-- 
d i e g o
--
Sorry for my bad English!