Should I switch to the IBM Jikes compiler (java)

Question

I just read in the Liferay documentation that the IBM Jikes (java) compiler is faster and more descriptive with compile-time errors.

I would like to know if the community agrees, and whether the switch makes a noticeable improvement in your performance.

Answer 1

Jikes was very attractive in JDK 1.3 days when the javac compiler was impressively slow. In comparison, darts were blindingly fast. However, more and more the speed improvement is becoming less noticeable to such an extent that I personally will no longer worry.

Answer 2

Jikes does not support the new Java 5 stuff, so this is not an option for projects using these tools.

The best javac alternative these days is, in my opinion, the Eclipse compiler, available in the standalone version. Speed ​​(which is the main force of jikes) is less today.

EDIT: Jikes supports incremental compilation, which can be very interesting in environments where development with a full-sized IDE is not an option.

Answer 3

If you use ant as a build system, you can easily switch between Jikes and javac; and then I suggest you try jikes - it is really amazingly fast.

Otherwise, you should consider it because it is not always compatible with your version of the JDK and may create an additional problem.

Answer 4

It is worth noting that the JDK7 compiler has some improvements in the descriptiveness of errors.