[vardump]

Function pointer jumps definitely break most chances for a compiler to optimize a function call. But then, so does a switch statement, most of the time. (Not to mention switch statements are often transformed into jump tables anyways.)

Humans tend to do a lot better jump tables in assembler, because of better choices about register usage etc. can be made, less (or no) need to spill to stack. One of the few remaining compiler weaknesses.