NOT TRUE. If you read the methodology listed in their FAQ, they state in bold - "Time measurements include program startup time". http://shootout.alioth.debia

NOT TRUE. If you read the methodology listed in their FAQ, they state in bold - "Time measurements include program startup time". http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/help.php#time http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/help.php#time If you read the section "What about Java?" they mention ADDITIONAL measurements, which are only shown on the Help page, and indicate how little difference JVM startup time makes once these programs have run for 5 seconds and 20 seconds. http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/help.php#java http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/help.php#java