Re: Do we really need virtual machines?

Dobes Vandermeer <dobes@dobesland.com> wrote:
>Nicola Musatti <Nicola.Musatti@ObjectWay.it> wrote:
>
>> After all, isn't gcc the most ported virtual machine of all?
>
>I think it's not a virtual machine; when the program is running, gcc
>is no longer running.


All languages require some kind of run time support. They also require
standard cross-module calling conventions. To some extent you can view
the combination of the run-time library and the stylized machine code
emitted by the compiler as a virtual machine. This view is made
explicit by a large proportion of functional programming language
compilers, where the technique is to compile the language to an
abstract virtual machine which can be compiled to efficient machine
code.


It's also worth considering the partial evaluation view of compilers,
where the run-time system is the residual part of the interpreter that
is left after it has been partially evaluated with respect to a
program.


Tony.
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