Java compilation [was GCs in the news]

[Bienlein via Digitalmars-d]

>>> The JVM JIT was originally targeted to SELF, not Java.

Yes, that's right. The guys that developed Self (David Ungar et 
al.) then set out to develop a high-performance typed Smalltalk 
using the optimization techniques they developed for Self. The 
Smalltalk system never hit the market as the development team was 
acquired by Sun before that could happen. The Smalltalk system 
they were working on was released to the public: 
http://www.strongtalk.org/

>> I think you'll find HotSpot evolved from a Smalltalk JIT 
>> originally.

The reason I replied to this is that the original technology 
developed for Self was not a JIT. It was a runtime byte code 
optimizer that was put into Java named HotSpot. Since HotSpot 
operates at runtime it can optimize things an optimizing compiler 
could not find at compile time. This is why Java sometimes 
catches up very good performance and in isolated cases can 
compete with C.