Linking languages

Question

I asked a question earlier about which language to use for an AI prototype. The consensus seemed to be that if I want it to be fast, I need to use a language like Java or C+

Answer 1

First, a meta comment: I would highly recommend coding the entire thing in a high-level language, profiling like mad, and optimizing only where profiling shows it's necessary. First optimize the algorithm, then the code, then think about bringing in the heavy iron. Having an optimum algorithm and clean code will make things much easier when/if you need to reimplement in a lower-level language.

Speaking for Python, IronPython/C# is probably the easiest optimization path.

CPython with C++ is doable, but I find C a lot easier to handle (but not all that easy, being C). Two tools that ease this are cython/pyrex (for C) and shedskin (for C++). These compile Python into C/C++, and from there you can access C/C++ libraries without too much ado.

I've never used jython, but I hear that the jython/Java optimization path isn't all that bad.