[JDEV] MIU, was: MSN transport questions

[Matt Tucker]

Lukas,

 >> Why that? As far as I remember my courses C and Java have the same
 >> expressive power.
 >>
 > Java is 6-10 times slower than C.

Normally I don't respond to stuff like this, but can't resist in this 
case. :) The whole "Java is 6-10 times slower" thing is total bull that 
might have been somewhat true five years ago, but is completely wrong 
now. Numerous performance tests have shown that optimized C code 
performs essentially the same as optimized Java code (doing apples to 
apples comparisons).

The main reason for this change in performance is that VM technology has 
advanced so much. VM's no longer just interpret byte code line by line 
(slow), but do dynamic compilation into machine code based on the usage 
patterns of the application. Microsoft's .NET framework operates 
basically the same way, although their VM isn't advanced as the Java 
ones yet from what I've read.

There are plenty of real arguments for and against Java, such as being 
much more efficient to develop in, but also generally requiring more 
runtime memory than C. Performance just isn't one of those reasons, 
except in very specialized circumstances. In any case, I'd be happy to 
continue the conversation off-list.

Regards,
Matt