# wc baseline output for comparison: ~$ wc perl_wc.pl pyth_wc.py large.txt 19 58 492 perl_wc.pl 25 96 673 pyth_wc.py 208048 1675832 11021496 large.txt 208092 1675986 11022661 total ~$ cat perl_wc.pl pyth_wc.py large.txt | wc 208092 1675986 11022661 # python version 2.0.1 ~$ time ./pyth_wc.py perl_wc.pl pyth_wc.py large.txt 19 58 492 perl_wc.pl 25 96 673 pyth_wc.py 208048 1675832 11021496 large.txt 208092 1675986 11022661 total real 0m31.360s user 0m31.030s sys 0m0.090s :~$ cat perl_wc.pl pyth_wc.py |./pyth_wc.py 44 154 1165 # perl version 5.6.1 ~$ time ./perl_wc.pl perl_wc.pl pyth_wc.py large.txt 19 58 492 perl_wc.pl 25 96 673 pyth_wc.py 208048 1675832 11021496 large.txt 208092 1675986 11022661 total real 0m7.450s user 0m7.240s sys 0m0.090s ~$ cat perl_wc.pl pyth_wc.py |./perl_wc.pl 44 154 1165 -