Actually, C++ has worse problems with this. Consider separate compilation and dynamic library loading. There is no way a static C++ compiler can inline accross

Actually, C++ has worse problems with this. Consider separate compilation and dynamic library loading. There is no way a static C++ compiler can inline accross dynamic module boundaries nor megamorphic call sites when the called function tree is not inlined completely up to the caller level. In rare cases, when it is, both Java and C++ do it now. JVM inlining is unmatched by static compilers now and is going to only improve once techniques described in the Azul paper are used. Sure, JVM has a ton of other problems compared to C++, but inlining is not one of them. BTW: I agree with the point that JVM optimizations are not enough and you often have to know what you're doing and optimize by hand appropriately.