Why does the JVM still not support tail-call optimization?
Two years after does-the-jvm-prevent-tail-call-optimizations , there seems to be a prototype implementation and MLVM has listed the feature as "proto 80%" for some time now. Is there no active interest from Sun's/Oracle's side in supporting tail calls or is it just that tail calls are "[...] fated to come in second place on every feature priority list [...]" as mentioned at the JVM Language Summit ? I would be really interested if someone has tested a MLVM build and could share some impressions of how well it works (if at all). Update: Note that some VMs like Avian support proper tail-calls