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Help crack the Java 1.6 Classfile Verifier
pdoubleya writes "As part of the development of Mustang (Java 1.6), Sun is developing a new, smaller and faster classfile verifier which they want your help in trying to break. As Sun VP Graham Hamilton puts it in his blog entry, "As part of Mustang we will be delivering a whole new classfile verifier implementation based on an entirely new verification approach. The classfile verifier is the very heart of the whole Java sandbox model, so replacing both the implementation and the basic verification model is a Really Big Deal.... The new verifier is faster and smaller than the classic verifier, but at the same time it doesn't have the ten years of reassuring shakedown history that we have with the classic verifier." You can read about the new verifier on Gilad Bracha's blog, and join the new Crack the Verifier initiative to if you can break it. Read all about the Crack the Verifier - Challenge."
I don't think Java is as slow as you think it is. It is very fast lately, and it is actually giving C a run for its money in some respects. It is *definitely* not the slug everyone thinks it is.
They're probably using Java because its not as slow as its reputation, and its becoming a commodity language in the enterprise lately. My corporate overlords have dictated the use of Java (IBMs WebSphere) for all current and future enterprise development, and most of us developers couldn't be happier. Everywhere I do contracting work for lately also uses Java. Java Is A Great Language(TM), especially since 5.0.
There used to be a time when I believed that all techies had agreed that Java was slow and bloated, but once I stopped reading Slashdot comments so religiously I began to see some truth. It isn't slow, it isn't bloated, and it isn't something I expect the Slashdot crowd (that I'm a founding member of) to understand anytime soon.