Why Bytecode?

[Eric W. Biederman]

>>>>> "MY" == Maneesh Yadav <97yadavm@scar.utoronto.ca> writes:

MY> OK, this may be a stupid comment, but I can't figure out a good answer.
MY> Why is that VM's like java impliment their thing with a universal
MY> bytecode?

Efficiency, and portability.  A byte code is a no brainer to
interpret, just do a switch on the byte code, and go to the right
place to interpret that.

Also basic optimizations can be done ahead of time.

Besides I haven't seen a `universal' bytecode.

MY> Why not concentrate on a VM with a readable language with a JIT and save
MY> space by leaving it up to a compression algo.?

MY> In order to prevent the code stealing, mangled sources could be used...

Code's copyrighted so why do you need to worry about code stealing?

MY> I realize that a bytecode is good since it resembles a processers
MY> instruction set nad is small.  But why restrict a language to only work
MY> with today's processing paradigms (who knows what's next).  Surely a
MY> good HLL leaves more room for the future.

It's expedient, simple, and well tested.  When that future comes you
upgrade your virtual machine.

MY> Doesn't bytcode just put an unessecary step in between
MY> idea-> language->program?

No.  It just specifies the form.


Eric