You make a very good point! My bad on that bit.

<excuses>

I did say <cite>I think...</cite>

What do you expect at a Perl site? Java expertise :8^)...

</excuses>

Being serious for a moment, if Javac is 'doing the right thing' on that line, that just means that it's memory overhead on recursive subroutines must be even worse than I thought. 4,000 -v- 2,000,000 recursions before blowing the stack is a mind-boggling 500 times less efficient in terms of memory/stack management. I guess I was looking for a rational explanation.

Note: I have made no attempt to verify the numbers

Update:I have confirmed that your assertion is true when using javac from jdk1.3.1 as follows

import java.io.PrintStream;

class dupme
{

    public dupme(int i)
    {
    //    0    0:aload_0         
    //    1    1:invokespecial   #1   <Method void Object()>
    //    2    4:getstatic       #2   <Field PrintStream System.out>
    //    3    7:new             #3   <Class StringBuffer>
    //    4   10:dup             
    //    5   11:invokespecial   #4   <Method void StringBuffer()>
    //    6   14:ldc1            #5   <String "I am '">
    //    7   16:invokevirtual   #6   <Method StringBuffer StringBuffe
+r.append(String)>
    //    8   19:iload_1         
    //    9   20:invokevirtual   #7   <Method StringBuffer StringBuffe
+r.append(int)>
    //   10   23:ldc1            #8   <String "'!">
    //   11   25:invokevirtual   #6   <Method StringBuffer StringBuffe
+r.append(String)>
    //   12   28:invokevirtual   #9   <Method String StringBuffer.toSt
+ring()>
    //   13   31:invokevirtual   #10  <Method void PrintStream.println
+(String)>
    //   14   34:new             #11  <Class dupme>
    //   15   37:dup             
    //   16   38:iload_1         
    //   17   39:iconst_1        
    //   18   40:iadd            
    //   19   41:invokespecial   #12  <Method void dupme(int)>
    //   20   44:astore_2        
    //   21   45:return          
    }
}
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