title: Can anyone quantify performance differences between C++ and Java?
body: <p>Java was initially slow before the JIT but today performance is pretty close to C++.  I want to know if someone has done measurable performance comparisons between the two languages?  <b>Where does Java fall short when compared to C++?</b>  Java provides many productivity gains to developers so they can write applications much quicker because of garbage college, lack of pointers, etc.  Applications such as Firefox, Webkit and Open Office, for example, could be developed much more quickly and reliably if written in 100% Java, perhaps by a factor of 2, but developers still choose C/C++ for performance reasons.  Can someone demonstrate where Java cannot be made to perform as well as C++ for applications like the ones that I mentioned.</p>
  
  <p>Let me just add that much application work is still being done in C++ for a reason.  This is  meant to be more than a subjective questions.  Languages with higher levels of abstraction frequently pay a performance penalty. We would all be programming in higher level languages if this penalty did not exist. Where does still Java pay in comparison to C++?  Be specific.</p>