I always have issue with the idea that a JIT or interpreter can rival native code. In many cases it just reveals a lack of understanding of why C is powerful.

I always have issue with the idea that a JIT or interpreter can rival native code. In many cases it just reveals a lack of understanding of why C is powerful. It lets you choose your implementation details very heavily (not heavily enough imo [!]) to the point where few languages can do things it can't. Meaning that comparing like for like code is naive - you should compare a copy of the 'faster' implementation in C to the implementation in the language being benchmarked. Due to design limitations its basically impossible for Java to seriously compete with C... I do generally agree that Java gets a serious bad rap for nearly nothing though...