Speed of Java (was: Linux on old laptop in two stages)

[Ben Scott]

On 6/6/06, Lawrence Tilly <mail.list.tilly at gmail.com> wrote:
> http://wiki.java.net/bin/view/Games/JeffOnPerformance

  There seem to be an awful lot of exceptions and conditions in there.

  For example, the author states you should have a "modern" JIT
compiler (whatever "modern" means), and ignore all the time at the
start where JIT optimization hasn't happened yet and is in fact making
things slower.  Well, that's sure convenient.  Many of the Java
programs I have to use, I only use for brief periods of time -- that
same time I'm supposed to ignore.  So I guess I should ignore Java
entirely!  ;-)

  Likewise, the "J2ME/CLDC" exception.  The author never specifies
what "slow" and "very limited" mean.  From what I gather from Java
people here on *this* list, it sounds like less than 512 megabytes is
"limited" in Java terms.  ;-)

  I also noticed that the benchmarks the author links to are focused
on "math heavy" operations.  All the Java programs I have to use
aren't doing lots of math, but rather, things like string
manipulation, network protocol, systems management, databases, etc.
Maybe that's significant.

  The other Java stuff I have to use is the random Java applets I
encounter on the web.  And, without fail, every time I encounter one,
the browser grinds to a halt.  Blame it on whatever you want, but
that's real world experience where Java == slow.  Doze and Nix both.
Firefox and MSIE.  MS-VM and Sun JRE.  Maybe there's a fast JVM out
there that all the smart Java people are using, but for everyone else,
it sucks mud.

  I really find this a shame, as Java-the-language seemed pretty nice
to me when I was exposed to it years ago.

-- Ben