There's an old saying that you can never be too rich or too thin. For computer programs it might be better to say you can't be too fast or too small. Over the years many have tried to speed up programs using a variety of techniques collectively known as optimization. Even Java is not immune to these attempts. Vendors have improved the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and provided Just in Time (JIT) compilation. For most Java programmers, optimization hasn't been a big concern. This is partly because of the inherent problems with optimizing Java. Another reason is that many applets are not time critical anyway. On top of that, the Internet is traditionally slower than your average program. All of that is changing, however. Today's applets are more and more performing the work of traditional desktop applications. More users than ever have high-bandwidth connections, too, so optimization is becoming more critical than ever.
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