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Eye on Java performance Improvements

Posted by michael on from the tweak-tweak dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Performance. It's the one aspect of the Java platform that continually takes abuse. But the overwhelming success of the platform on other fronts makes performance issues worth serious investigation. In this article, Intrepid optimizers Jack Shirazi and Kirk Pepperdine, Director and CTO of JavaPerformanceTuning.com, look at compilation speed, exceptions, and heap size tuning."

3 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. "Level: Introductory" by jtheory · · Score: 4, Informative

    Level: Introductory
    Just a note -- don't bother reading if you've ever looked into Java tuning before.

    I admit I only skimmed the article... but the tips I saw are all simple suggestions that have been around for years now.

    Use Jikes for quick compilations? Jikes has been around since before the Java 1.2 days.

    Only throw Exceptions in "exceptional" cases, because they will slow things down? Again, advice I've been hearing since the early days.

    Nary a word about exploiting the new IO classes, or evaluating performance of XML vs. custom formats, etc. etc.

    --
    There are only 10 types of people: those who understand decimal, those who don't, and, uh, 8 other types I forget.
    1. Re:"Level: Introductory" by Ian+Jefferies · · Score: 3, Informative

      There's a technical paper on HotSpot technology that covers much of the ground. It does mention range checking removal, but also some of the complications: dynamic loading of classes, runtime reflective method calling, and adherence to the Java security model. From a quick read it suggests that flow analysis is appropriate for inlining virtual method calls, and that de-optimization has to happen when the environment changes. Complicated stuff.

      I know enough about compilation optimization to appreciate how complicated a subject it is, and that many optimizations can appear to be counter-productive. I'm always going to have an interest in it, but don't think I'm ever going to be working on it from the inside by doing software research.

      Cheers,

      Ian.

      --
      A physicist is an atom's way of thinking about atoms
  2. Article doesn't say much by cxvx · · Score: 5, Informative
    There are better articles on the IBM site discussing java performance:

    Knowing when to optimize is more important than knowing how to optimize
    Urban performance legends

    --
    If only I could come up with a good sig ...