You took the works right out of my mouth! I think that once we start thinking about Pd as a language in itself, then people will start to think how to optimize it as well. There is no doubt in my mind that C code would be faster than Pd for most things, but, like Java, Ruby, SmallTalk, there is something to be gained by using it to program. Assembly is even faster than C, so why aren't people writing objects in assembly?
well, it's clear, that it's absolutely nonsense to write some stuff in a low-level language like c or assembler. aspects are:
- coding speed
- runtime speed
- code readability / maintainability
- level of abstraction
i wouldn't write a some control logic of a composition or installation in asselber, nor would i write a frequently used message-object in pd or any of the high-level scripting languages like guile, python or ruby...
using assembler has 2 features:
- runtime speed (simd)
- full access to the architecture (there are machine features, that no
language i know implements)
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