Comment by nirvdrum

A fast language runtime helps all programs. If it's slow, there's precious little you can do about it. And the design of the language may end up such that certain aspects are just always going to be slow. So, I very much disagree with the notion that this a premature optimization (and I'm starting to think that phrase needs to just go away). You seem to allude to as much by delineating between compiled and scripting languages.