alt Hacker NewsI worked on Java code at AWS for a few years and nobody tried to optimize allocations. Then I changed jobs and started working on a Java MPP database and my first code review was brutal. You were expected to avoid allocations as much as possible (mostly by using the SoA pattern everywhere). At that scale no GC could save you from excessive allocations.
I believe the whole string vs stringbuffer that later was made redundant by compiler contributed to that vision.
People started dismissing allocation discipline as a thing from the past because "that thing was solved a lot ago and the compiler now is smart enough".
Well, for string, yes, but not for arbitrary objects.