On Sun, 3 Jun 2001, Mike Nordell wrote:
> You're sorry "if"? Shouldn't that have been your sorry "that"? Btw, I'd
> _really_ like to see you trying to explain that "every function is virtual"
> in Java comes "for free". ;->
It does. In the (overwhelmingly most) common case, Java virtual function
calls only actually invoke one method. [For instance, see Figure 5 of the
OOPSLA 2000 paper, "Practical Virtual Method Call Resolution for Java".]
When that happens, the CPU will actually cache the callee site in its
Branch Target Buffer, and the indirect call is just as fast as a direct
call.
> > They don't add all that much bloat either, though.
>
> So a little bloat is OK? I'm sorry, but I think _that's_ flawed thinking.
A little bloat is OK if you get something from it.
I'll let Dom reply to the rest of this mail.
pat
