Python faster than compiled Haskell?

Question

I have a simple script written in both Python and Haskell. It reads a file with 1,000,000 newline separated integers, parses that file into a list of integers, quick sorts i

Answer 1

To follow up @kindall interesting answer, those timings are dependent from both the python / Haskell implementation you use, the hardware configuration on which you run the tests, and the algorithm implementation you right in both languages.

Nevertheless we can try to get some good hints of the relative performances of one language implementation compared to another, or from one language to another language. With well known alogrithms like qsort, it's a good beginning.

To illustrate a python/python comparison, I just tested your script on CPython 2.7.3 and PyPy 1.8 on the same machine:

• CPython: ~8s
• PyPy: ~2.5s

This shows there can be room for improvements in the language implementation, maybe compiled Haskell is not performing at best the interpretation and compilation of your corresponding code. If you are searching for speed in Python, consider also to switch to pypy if needed and if your covering code permits you to do so.