You know it’s a platform war when the programming language debates heat up. Yesterday, Sam Pullara dusted off the old string comparison benchmark and dressed it up with a fresh click-baiting headline. It worked—enough to make Tomcat-and-Ant-creator-turned-photographer James Duncan Davidson put down his camera and give a history lesson.
Does Android’s Dalvik VM bring things to the table that previous JITs did not? It’s entirely possible. Duncan’s final point is the key one: all that matters here is whose users get the most done, and have the most fun doing it. It’s gonna be awhile before we know. In the meantime, grab your popcorn. This rivalry gets better by the minute.