D vs Java

[Tom]

Walter Bright escribió:
> "Dave" <Dave_member at pathlink.com> wrote in message 
> news:dvkbvk$2hn5$1 at digitaldaemon.com...
>> IIRC, there was some argument a while back that they weren't running the 
>> tests
>> long-enough to take advantage of Hotspot. Since then they've increased the
>> length of the tests to account for that (and startup time is subtracted 
>> from
>> those results as well, I believe).
> 
> I attended a seminar at SDWest which talked about the "myth" of slow Java. 
> Turns out, the code is interpreted for a while, then it gets compiled, then 
> certain things can *invalidate the compiled code* so it goes back to 
> interpreting it, then compiling it again, etc.
> 
> Is it invalid to include all these compile times, even if they occur well 
> into the execution, as part of the benchmark time? I don't think so. At the 
> end of the day, the time the user is sitting their waiting is what matters, 
> and that will include all the startup, interpretation, compilation and 
> recompilation times.

I agree 100%. Users in the end, can and will note many of these 
background "moves" of the VM. The benchmark for testing Java vs. other 
languages in terms of perceivable speed should be: start the timer just 
before running the app and stop the timer when terminating it (of 
course, taking all the cares that are needed to be fair).

> The presenter confidently predicted that in 10 years, Java will outperform C 
> in the general case. Color me skeptical. 

Amen! (this is truly unbelievable)