Java and C# are very fast for certain problems, but running 'for i in *; do java MyProgram $i; done' in a large directory is decidedly less pleasant than it wou

Java and C# are very fast for certain problems, but running 'for i in *; do java MyProgram $i; done' in a large directory is decidedly less pleasant than it would be with the same program written in e.g. C. For very small programs, msot cycles are indeed not spent on the program itself. (Of course, looping in that way is still inefficient when your program is written in C.) Clicking a button shouldn't cause a noticeable delay on vaguely modern hardware, I agree.