If you want numbers, try comparing the stack depth in a modern application's event handler to those from 10 years ago. Qt4 alone, for example, routinely approaches 50 calls deep just to update a canvas in response to a mouse event. Add to that a dozen or more layers between the compositing manager, window manager, X, display driver, and the kernel, and the end-to-end latency climbs through the roof.
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If you want numbers, try comparing the stack depth in a modern application's event handler to those from 10 years ago. Qt4 alone, for example, routinely approaches 50 calls deep just to update a canvas in response to a mouse event. Add to that a dozen or more layers between the compositing manager, window manager, X, display driver, and the kernel, and the end-to-end latency climbs through the roof.
I hope that the end of higher Ghz processors will make it viable again to optimize for code performance instead of optimized for developer time.