java vs python for GAE

Question

from these links:-

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u64q/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=python3&lang2=java    
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32q/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=python3&lang2=java
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u64/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=python3&lang2=java 
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=python3&lang2=java

they appear clearly that the best choice for GAE is java, if scalable feature is what we are looking for.

my question is, What are the implications that will affect on performance if we use one of frameworks?

e.g.

 django     --> python
 spring MVC --> java
 slim3      --> java
 ... etc

Answer 1

I'm used both Python and Java on GAE, one project done using Python+Django, and one using Java/Groovy+Spring.

Python+Django is very easy to develop, initially, but not so easy to maintain. It have enough fast startup time, good documentation, atc.

Java+Spring requires more development (some parts takes 2-3 times more than doing same using django), have problems with startup time (even if you are using warmup requests). But it much more stable.

Python project have too much errors, mostly without any visible (to you) reason :( And it's very hard to find cause of this errors, because of dynamic nature of lang. And also, be ready to manually patch some libraries you're using. Don't get me wrong, i have many years of Python experience, but it's really hard to maintain it on such distributed systems like GAE, and it's really have problems with quality of code :(

Java, in other hand, works very well. In case when your code have problems, you'll see all information you need to fix this, and after few iterations you'll fix almost all bugs. Except one: sometimes you'll see startup errors :( Not too often, btw

PS btw, choosing right language for GAE depend on what language you knows betters :) If you don't know Java yet - don't start with it, it requires at least 1-2 years to understand language.

Answer 2

Just a quick note - don't take this as a definitive/comprehensive comparison:

Both Django and Spring have a long startup time, which can lead to requests being dropped. I'd go with a framework that was speciffically made for GAE: tipify, slim3, etc..

Answer 3

These benchmarks compare Python 3 to Java on a (presumably) standard setup. There's no indication of what sort of workload these benchmarks test, either.

App Engine runs Python 2.5, in a decidedly different configuration to what you'd find on a standard desktop, so the benchmarks really don't apply.

Further, scalability isn't about benchmarks like these - they make, at most, a constant factor difference. If your app is built to scale, it will scale in either language, to the same degree. Scalability depends on how well you architect your app and use the underlying infrastructure.

I would recommend using whatever language and framework you're most comfortable with - don't pick your language based on benchmarks.