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Re: Perl vs Java in Heavyweight Filesystem Processing

by submersible_toaster (Chaplain)
on May 23, 2003 at 03:25 UTC ( [id://260311]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Perl vs Java in Heavyweight Filesystem Processing

While I don't have quite the same case to relate, let me tell you about a daemon I wrote once. I worked with a company that used a java , web-faced system to track big lumps of data around the building (with versioning and various bells). This system become interactive enough that users could create a work order to copy chunk-of-data-BLAH from someplace to someOTHERplace.

I was tasked to write the poor little slave process to do the work orders. My initial try was with perl , it was quick, smart and IMO very cool. But it was deemed that rather than a CGI perl service, this was to be done using Tomcat instead. Not knowing java , I ported the worker to python, then jythonized it to run with Tomcat.

The developer descends on me, howling about the slowness of this new service. Files were taking 10 times longer to transfer , no network or disk IO bottlenecks could be found. I went straight for the .py file , changed some shutil.copyfile()'s with actual system calls to cp and magically everything went a LOT faster , but still not as quick as perl.

I doubt this gives you much ammunition, but it's a Java vs perl story, where java won (but sucked) and perl lost (but got the job done). I am suspicious of other things pushing the bias toward java , certainly it was seen as more acceptable to use a python/java hack than a clever perl CGI. Why? I just dont know.


I can't believe it's not psellchecked

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Re: Re: Perl vs Java in Heavyweight Filesystem Processing
by linux454 (Pilgrim) on May 23, 2003 at 17:58 UTC
    This is completely irrelevant as you didn't program anything in Java, you ported a perl script to a python script, and run the python script via a Python interpreter implemented in Java. That harldy qualifies a Java "program".

      Correct - I programmed nothing in java, but ultimately the python ran in a python interpreter, implemented in java. So what java classes does the j-python interpreter call for file IO?

      For those unfamiliar with Java's java.io.File package, consider yourselves lucky. In comparison to Perl's File modules, Java's API is clumsy, slow, and incomplete. The text processing piece is a no brainer; clearly Perl has the upper hand.

      Irrelevant ? I can't really say, I don't program in java.


      hunting /. grammar nazis since when?
Re: Re: Perl vs Java in Heavyweight Filesystem Processing
by Anonymous Monk on May 23, 2003 at 11:30 UTC
    When you were hired, did they require Java skills? I'd have fired you for jythonization

      • I was never hired as a programmer
      • My employ pre-dated the use of java for internal services
      • I programmed in perl to avoid sysadmin fear and loathing
      • Tomcat was not my idea.
      • The perl solution solved the problem.
      • The perl solution did not create a problem
      • You'd fire me for jythonising? Like a care

      I can't believe it's not psellchecked

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