I think you're misunderstanding how optimization works. Take the code posted above:

for (0..1_000_000) {
 $x=$_+1;
}
[download]

Or in C or Java:

int i, x;
for(i = 0; i < 1000000; i++) {
    x = i + 1;
}
[download]

C and Java optimizers can turn the above into this:

int x = 1000000;
[download]

Thus totally eliminating the loop. Run your C compiler with -O0, and you'll get comparible performance to the Perl version.

Why isn't this test relevent? Because the C/Java optimizer cannot always unroll loops. This is fairly common in any real-world program.

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Reinvent a rounder wheel.

Note: All code is untested, unless otherwise stated