If I recall correctly, the jdk from Sun says something like, "you agree to not use Java for time-critical applications" or some such.

I also heard something about tweaking the Virtual Machine can accomodate time-critical applications. Also, that this is legal/acceptable and other vendors offer VM's.

Strictly speaking for Sun Certification, I think the timing of threads and notifications would only apply to the Sun jdk (hence "Sun" Certification).

So, has anyone else heard of tweaking the VM, implementing your own VM, or obtaining other VM's; especially for time-critical applications?

The main reason I moved to Java is that I'm tired of MS products not working according to the documentation (and obvious [and more than likely not so obvious] typos on the "latest" online documentation).

I like the rich API's for Java, but I need real-time processing. MSVC++ is rich in API's, but I've found the advanced topics that I'm interested in to be poorly documented, although MS is pretty dominant. I also like the price of Sun's Java.

Also, perhaps recommendations for API rich, inexpensive, working C/C++ development software would be better for me.

Summarizing:
1) Any news on VMs?
2) Any good C/C++ development software?