[comp.lang.eiffel] Eiffel and Efficiency

graham@maths.su.oz.au (Graham Matthews) (06/15/90)

>>It was asked what contributes to the ~25% performance disadvantage of
>>Eiffel relative to C.
>>It is true that garbage collection imposes an overhead.
>> [stuff deleted]
>>It is true that feature selection is not free - although it is no worse
>>than C++. There is a startup cost associated with feature selection which
>>can be irritating and could probably be eliminated. (Look at the INIT
>>and DIVE routines in a C package.)
 
It is all interesting to know, but what I was really after with the original
posting is WHY it is slower. ie: WHY is there this lookup and startup
cost. As far as I can see there should be no cost if well implemented.
 
Am I overlooking something that makes the cost fundamental and unavoidable?
 
graham