Why does Lisp need to be slower than c?
Yaa101: Because C is not really a higher level language, C is very close to it's assembly core and often C and Assembly are combined in functions. Also don't forget that modern C compilers are very good in optimizing for speed AND size, if you see the generated assembly from the compile job there is hardly to none optimizing to be done by assembly specialists.Down side of C is that every little algorithm or pattern needs to be made from scratch as there is almost none functionality in the language itself. What people see as C is most often the nowadays immense library of solutions.
Upside is it's proven flexibility, C can do almost anything and is to be found on every platform out there.Lisp is mainly about a certain functionality, that is list processing, so you are comparing a general purpose language with a specialist one. In other words, you are comparing apples and pears.