[Mono-list] NET using Java VMs and libs

[t3rmin4t0r]

On Tue, Mar 26, 2002 at 12:52:19PM -0000, Guy Murphy wrote:
> 
> There are some of us who do not believe that Sun is any more commited 
>  to altruistic action outside their  profits than Microsoft... 

    After all these guys sell proprietary hardware *and* software.

> a) they simply like it, and believe it to be well designed, 

    I think the design of CLR is quite good. But the whole .NET idea
is what MS had promised with COM , later with DCOM and now with CLR.

> b) it has been through an independent standardisation process which 
>    offer levels of freedom from corperate impreatives that Java does 
>    not 

    ECMA Spec ?. That's the biggest con M$ pulled. The ECMA spec has
a mere 300 classes while the .NET is home for zillions more .

> I personaly am attracted by web services and strong contracts 
> for distributed computing, 

    That's what frightens me -- M$ control is possible once .NET 
starts verifying the structure of your hard disk and starts reporting 
it to M$ to help build a better product. Yes, it will be easy to turn
it off -- but how many will know is another issue.

> rather than a world where everything is coded in Java... if Java 
> is you prefered language, yay you!... 
    
    Java is a language -- JVM is a platform. I have seen Assemblers,
compilers targeting the JVM. One of my friends wrote a small compiler
for JVM (using Apache BCEL) based on BASIC-80.

> currently Python, 

    Check out jython it can compile python to .class files.

>.. if you prefer to just use Java again, yay you!

    Have you ever looked at the JVM .class files, they are so simple
in structure , unlike the MZ'd executables of M$ .NET . First you have
to take care of all the junk associated with a standard EXE , after that
the stack based code too.

> 
> So, reverting to your consideration of Java as a platform on which 
> to implement another language,

    The JVM has lesser instructions than CLR . The obvious misses are
the pointer instructions (don't tell me these are easily portable !).
The possibility is very limited in that case.

    But Java is here , Sun is not. MS is here, C# is not.

Gopz 

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