Comments on: A Language-Agnostic Java?

By: Ben Ramsey

Ben Ramsey — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 16:40:57 +0000

Java is much like C++. It gets compiled to bytecode and executed the same way. PHP is much different. It is an interpreted language (like Perl, Python, Ruby, etc.) and only gets compiled at run-time by the interpreter. Running any of these languages through a single VM means writing an interpreter that converts the language (PHP, Python, etc.) into either the VM's assembly code or intermediate code -- in either case it's something that the VM can natively understand. Then, the VM compiles that to bytecode either for later execution or immediate execution. So, in a sense, the answer to your question is "yes."

By: Mike Lively

Mike Lively — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 16:30:47 +0000

Bear with me, I am not too familiar with java, I grew up with C++. From what I understand of the language is that the written code gets compiled into bytcodes…alot like PHP I guess. So what I am asking is would you beable to compile PHP or Python or any of these other languages into the bytecode? I’m guessing not based on what I have read so far. Like I said, not too familiar with the scene just looking to becmoe that way.

By: Patrick Reilly

Patrick Reilly — Thu, 23 Dec 2004 13:35:51 +0000

PHP can integrate with Java, which means that it can be used as the scripting language for activating Java logic, just as much as JSP can. Unlike JSP, however, PHP also integrates with other component models, such as Microsoft’s COM, and adding support for new object models is extremely easy. This means PHP’s extensibility is infinite. JSP, on the other hand, is completely dependent on Java.

It would be really nice to see this work in both directions… go Sun!

By: Ben Ramsey

Ben Ramsey — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 18:56:15 +0000

Matthew’s right. You would still need the interpreter/compiler for the language installed. That compiler would process the language so that it could run through the VM. I suppose, however, that the popular languages would come packaged with the installer for the VM, giving users the option to install those languages they want to use or just to install all of them by default.

By: Matthew Weier O'Phinney

Matthew Weier O'Phinney — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 12:48:47 +0000

Lewis—You would still need each language installed on the machine/server in question. The idea is more that each language would be able to utilize constructs from the other languages present in the virtual machine. Thus, if perl and PHP are both present, PHP would have access to perl objects and vice versa.

Another benefit of the system is that the developer would target the virtual machine, not the OS; this would make the application portable cross-platform without needing to do anything special in the language itself.

By: Lewis Franklin

Lewis Franklin — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 06:14:22 +0000

So would the idea be that code written in PHP/Python/Perl be able to run on any computer that has JVM installed? This would be nice for WIndows users since they are more likely to have Java installed than any other scripting language…