Joachim Van der Auwera wrote: > Speed is not the issue. I beg to differ. Applications coming to a complete halt because the garbage collector decides that it is time to bring out the thrash are not unheard of. And that's basically my point. A garbage collector is a convenience for the programer. It is however bad from an efficiency POV. Sure, it helps preventing memory leaks, but then you just have to do it right in other languages.
> While Java *can* be run using a interpreter (which I assume is what you > actually mean when you say "virtual machine"), that is indeed wasteful > of clock cycles. However, the latest breed of JIT compilers does not > interpret anything, it simply compiles code later rather than sooner. > Combined with classloader tricks this is very powerful. Well, I am an advocate for the "compile once, run many" doctrine. I don't see the point in compiling an application every darn time I start it. Or even interpreting it once or twice and stopping for compiling it in between. > There actually are benchmarks (ok, I know these are not always > equally correct) which show that Java code runs *faster* then > equivalent C++ code. Lies, damn lies and benchmarks :-) > In short, and as always, it is mainly the skills of the programmers > which determine whether a program runs fast and/or uses a lot of > memory. I trust you know what you're doing. But most programers who start with Java certainly don't anymore. I normally use PCs which most people would probably consider outdated. On those I can say that all Java applications I've come across are neither as fast nor as restrained when it comes to memory than natively compiled applications. > You can write sloppy and wasteful code in any language. Too true. > What matters most is that it is more difficult to write properly > working code in some languages than in others. AFAIK Java is on the > better side. True, too. As I said, the language is pretty much fine with me. I currently cannot name a single language that has my full approval anyway: "all programming languages suck". Marcel _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.quanta.org.uk/mailing.htm
