The big one is the recent add of the 'invokedynamic' instruction, which has dramatically improved the performance of dynamically typed languages.[0] Mostly, tho

The big one is the recent add of the 'invokedynamic' instruction, which has dramatically improved the performance of dynamically typed languages.[0] Mostly, though, it's just externalities from the slowly-and-steadily-improving Java language; for example, the improved support for anonymous functions in Java 8 also promises to make Scala faster. [0]: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/vm/multiple-language-support.html https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/vm/mu...