Aside on 5): if you make your shell scripts call an already-running JVM, it is amazingly fast (ie. it's a server). A very very simple hack for is to run the JV

Aside on 5): if you make your shell scripts call an already-running JVM, it is amazingly fast (ie. it's a server). A very very simple hack for is to run the JVM in an xterm, inside rlwrap, and implement a rudimentary command-loop - then type your commands directly.