evaluate @specialized #17
Description
The @specialized annotation (in combination with the -Yspecialize option for scalac) has the promise of reducing boxing overheads, especially for reads (txn and non-txn) and non-txn writes. (Txn writes must place something in the write buffer, which requires either a runtime manifest check to use separate code paths, or boxing.) Care must be taken to ensure that the specialization extends all the way from the caller to the innards, otherwise we can actually introduce extra boxing!
The primary complication with specialization is its tricky interaction with subclassing.