Was about to submit this, and the search revealed this comment that's very relevant: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2857938 http://news.ycombinator.com/ite

Was about to submit this, and the search revealed this comment that's very relevant: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2857938 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2857938 This kind of optimization is often very important. Unfortunately what works changes often and it's hard to guess what will work -- which is why it's good to do these micro-benchmarks.