C++ vs. Java (speed considerations only)

[davidthefat]

Java has a lot more overhead than C++. For example, the JVM itself needs to use the same registers, caches and RAM that the Java Program would use. Also, a Java Object has at least 8 bytes of overhead (because of the instruction pointers). If you caste a type, you have to copy it since Java just does not read it as the type you are converting to. Take for example, if you have a 32 bit integer in memory in C++, you can caste it to read in as a short (16 bits). It will only read the first 16 bits. But since everything is an object in Java, the memory simply cannot be read as 16 bits. It needs to be copied.