C++ vs. D memory management performance (Was: Faster Virtual Method Dispatch)

[Craig Black]

> Surprisingly, the slice code does substantially better than both the other 
> C++ versions and the D code.  Perhaps this evening I'll re-run the C++ 
> tests under Visual Studio to give the hash table a test drive.

Wow!  It's over twice as fast!  How difficult would it be to use the same 
approach for wordcount in D by bypassing the GC?

So what do you think we should do about GC to make D faster?  Do you favor 
making GC optional or writing a more optimized, compacting GC?  I personally 
think that even optimized GC won't come close to code that has been 
optimized with manual memory management.

-Craig