Is that really the case in real world loads? I have always thought that the moment you avoid blocking io and code almost any language is fast enough. And usually the problems come from bad design.
Well, it very much depends what you're doing. Obviously, if you are doing something CPU-bound, code speed is pretty important. Not sure what blocking IO has to do with it one way or the other. Are you thinking specifically of webapps, maybe?
I've come to think of it as a plus that the entire semantics of a language can fit in working memory. What features do you find to be missing from languages like Lua and Scheme?
