[virtmach] Your VM

Michal Gajda Michal Gajda <korek@icm.edu.pl>
Mon, 28 May 2001 11:54:00 +0200 (CEST)


On Mon, 28 May 2001, [iso-8859-1] Mickaël Pointier wrote:

> > So, why do you think VM with it's own code was a better implementation
> > option for Creatures than say interpreter, or encoding behaviour of your
> > objects over some domain-specific library? ;-)
>
> What is the difference between a VM and an interpreter ? For me a VM
> is a "byte code interpreter", so I do not understand the distinction.

By interpreter I meant "direct interpreter for high-level language".
Usually I don't consider writting bytecode directly(am I the only one?),
so for bytecode interpreter you have(to be read w/fixed width font):

                         compiler              bytecode
high-level language	----------> bytecode -------------> [program
(maybe domain-specific)                       interpreter    results and
                                                             effects]
Instead of:
                       direct
high-level language -------------> [program results and effects]
                     interpreter

Thus you avoid for example reanalyzing code syntax each time
and possibly checking it's static correctness.

	Greetings :-)
		Michal Gajda
		korek@icm.edu.pl
		*knowledge-hungry student*