Chad Perrin wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 26, 2006 at 11:29:06PM +0900, Ryan McGovern wrote:
-snip-
> For those keen on functional programming syntax, Haskell is a better
> choice than Java for performance: in fact, the only thing keeping
> Haskell from performing as well as C, from what I understand, is the
> current state of processor design.  Similarly, O'Caml is one of the
> fastest non-C languages available: it consistently, in a wide range of
> benchmark tests and real-world anecdotal comparisons, executes "at least
> half as quickly" as C, which is faster than it sounds.

For those keen on functional programming, Clean produces small fast
executables.

> The OP is right, though: if execution speed is your top priority, use C.
> Java is an also-ran -- what people generally mean when they say that
> Java is almost as fast as C is that a given application written in both
> C and Java "also runs in under a second" in Java, or something to that
> effect.  While that may be true, there's a significant difference
> between 0.023 seconds and 0.8 seconds (for hypothetical example).

That sounds wrong to me - I hear positive comments about Java
performance for long-running programs, not for programs that run in
under a second.