10. BlitzMax is compiled, but what makes it slower than C++? Is it that C++ makes better assembly code? is it that some of blitzmax isn't actually compiled?
First off, you can't just make blanket statements that language A is faster than language B. What you really need to compare are specific compilers( ie, vc++ 8 vs the blitzmax compiler ). And even thats iffy, from what I've seen in most benchmarks on the net. There always ends up being a lot of give and take in those comparisons. Plus people write shoddy code, or use unrealistic benchmarks.
Anways, It does come down to the code generated, and how good that specific compiler was at optimizing its input. But more importantly -- how good or bad the programmer using it was :)
For your list of items, you should really check out wikipedia. It has lots of good articles on computer languages/compiler tech.