F# Performance

There's a comparison of F# versus IronPython in Robert Pickering's blog. The results show that F# has roughly the same level of conciseness and terseness of Python, while being close in performance to C#. This is a .NET-based comparison, but it would be interesting to compare F# with CPython to see where it stands. If we are to believe this discussion on the python-dev mailing list, it seems that IronPython's performance must be comparable to CPython's, so there we have it: .NET or not, F# strikes an interesting balance in the expressiveness versus performance trade-offs.

This is also my personal experience with OCaml: performance roughly comparable to C/C++, but expressive and concise like scripting languages. It is this interesting position in the expressiveness x performance curve that makes both F# and OCaml very worthwhile languages to learn and use today.