Why does the JVM still not support tail-call optimization?
Diagnosing Java Code: Improving the Performance of Your Java Code (alt) explains why the JVM does not support tail-call optimization.
But although it is well known how to automatically transform a tail-recursive function into a simple loop, the Java specification doesn't require that this transformation be made. Presumably, one reason it is not a requirement is that, in general, the transformation can't be made statically in an object-oriented language. Instead, the transformation from tail-recursive function to simple loop must be done dynamically by a JIT compiler.
It then gives an example of Java code that won't transform.
So, as the example in Listing 3 shows, we cannot expect static compilers to perform transformation of tail recursion on Java code while preserving the semantics of the language. Instead, we must rely on dynamic compilation by the JIT. Depending on the JVM, the JIT may or may not do this.
Then it gives a test you can use to figure out if your JIT does this.
Naturally, since this is an IBM paper, it includes a plug:
I ran this program with a couple of the Java SDKs, and the results were surprising. Running on Sun's Hotspot JVM for version 1.3 reveals that Hotspot doesn't perform the transformation. At default settings, the stack space is exhausted in less than a second on my machine. On the other hand, IBM's JVM for version 1.3 purrs along without a problem, indicating that it does transform the code in this way.
One reason I've seen in the past for not implementing TCO (and it being seen as difficult) in Java is that the permission model in the JVM is stack-sensitive and thus tail-calls must handle the security aspects.
I believe this was shown to not be an obstacle by Clements and Felleisen [1] [2] and I'm pretty sure the MLVM patch mentioned in the question deals with it as well.
I realize this does not answer your question; just adding interesting information.
Perhaps you know this already, but the feature is not as trivial as it may sound since the Java language actually exposes the stack trace to the programmer.
Consider the following program:
public class Test { public static String f() { String s = Math.random() > .5 ? f() : g(); return s; } public static String g() { if (Math.random() > .9) { StackTraceElement[] ste = new Throwable().getStackTrace(); return ste[ste.length / 2].getMethodName(); } return f(); } public static void main(String[] args) { System.out.println(f()); }}Even though this has a "tail-call" it may not be optimized. (If it is optimized, it still requires book-keeping of the entire call-stack since the semantics of the program relies on it.)
Basically, this means that it's hard to support this while still being backward compatible.