>>28
VM startup time is irrelevant.
If you have a long-running program, the startup time is dwarfed.
If you have a short-running program that is run once, it simply doesn't matter.
If you have a short-running program that is run multiple times, you just stream data through it, instead of starting/stopping processes, just like you do in C++ etc (also why makefile and such building SUCKS ASS compared to uber fast Java compiling of giant code trees in seconds)