Re: GNOME platform as either/both JVM and CLI and more

[Evan Martin <martine danga com>]

On Mon, Mar 29, 2004 at 06:49:44PM -0800, Patrick wrote:
> I can't think of an extremely clear example at the moment but try this
> one: suppose you use some language which stores two-dimensional arrays
> by the first index and then by the second index
> 	some_array[2][3] = ([0][0]),([1][0]),([0][1]),([1][1])...)
> which is then exposed over the VM. Now if this is used in another
> language which stores two-dimensional arrays by the second index and
> then the first index instead aren't we going to have a serious
> performance mismatch between the way the same API is executed between
> the two languages because the API was designed specifically for the
> features of the one language?

A VM works at a lower level than this; the language-specific compiler
would translate ideas like array subscripting to whatever the canonical
form is for the underlying VM.

> And if not isn't the VM just reducing languages to a single language
> with multiple syntaxes? For instance in a CLR won't everything either
> be C# or be forced to move toward C# designs for performance reasons?

This is a different, and higher, layer:  the libraries used by C# (and
VB.NET, etc.) come with their own semantics and do bleed their ideas
into the language (examples: StudlyCaps, imperative vs. functional).

-- 
Evan Martin
martine danga com
http://neugierig.org