Comment by agumonkey

I didn't find it slow, but:

    $ time julia -e 'print(1)'
    1
    real    0m0.438s
    user    0m0.300s
    sys     0m0.118s
    $ time python -c 'print(1)'
    1

    real    0m0.040s
    user    0m0.036s
    sys     0m0.003s

it is slower..

That said, instanciating julia every step of a bash loop.. I think it requires a jvm mindset, warmup once and iterate inside rather than outside.