Nim performance tuning for the uninitiated

UPDATE 2017-06-04: Corrected some slight misinformation regarding link time optimisations and the {.inline.} pragma, some stylistic improvements, added more references.
Table of contents Overview First attempts Test setup Round 1 — Nim vs C++ 0. C++ 1. Nim — using GLM 2. Nim — custom vector class (object refs) 3. Nim — custom vector class (objects) 4. Nim — vector module 5. Nim — vector module (with inlines) Round 2 — Nim vs Java, JavaScript & Python JIT warmup Conclusion Does it all matter?