Sept. 20, 2009
5:49 p.m.
They probably moved while we got stuck. This is all the story behind pharo: moving again.
Lua is SLOW :)
But still - you can go and see the speed comparison of different numerical algorythms implemented in different languages. Squeak leaves Lua far behind.. That sounds like FUD. But, maybe I misunderstand you here.
However, Lua 5.x is FAST, especially for an interpreted language. Its register-based implementation seems to be much better for interpretation in terms of speed than the stack-based bytecode in Squeak.
See: http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=lua&lang2=...
Hmm.. it looks like im wrong. Because couple years back it was slower.