Is it worth switching to IBM Jikes (java) compiler

Question

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

I would like to know whether the community agrees, and whether the switch makes any noticeable improvement in your productivity.

Answer 1

Jikes was very compelling in the JDK 1.3 days when the javac compiler was awe-inspiringly slow. In comparison, jikes was blindingly fast. Increasingly, however, the speed improvement is becoming less noticeable, to the point where I personally wouldn't bother any more.