There are wide varieties of ways to write bad code so it will go slower than it should. Python and large data sets can be pretty speedy if you control how the data is set up. Python and other languages with heap management fall over when the starting point is “load the entire 2.3 petabyte database into memory”
I do a large amount of microcontroller programming and I’ve been doing prototypes using Micropython (or Circuit Python to be exact) Once I’ve beaten down poorly described requirements, chip sets that silicon does not match any of the documentation, I can then look at speed. 90% of the time I just leave it alone, the CPU has slack cycles, it’s not being stressed.
But if I’m using one of the 10 cent CPU, I’ll start in C since I want to squeeze as much as possible. I’ve been bitbanging with C since my Small C days on 8080 / Z80 chips. (circa 1980)
Yea, this is an old thread, I was tagged in a comment with you Turbodog and @BananaPi and so I went back to see what was going on. Block code still rules for beginners, even with the spiffy MS editor help.