Re: Possible to write compiler to Java VM?

Darius Blasband <darius@phidani.be> wrote:
>I am afraid I basically disagree with you: generating Java source code
>as intermediate compilation step does not seem to be an applicable
>(not to mention good) idea in almost any case I can think of. Fortran
>to Java ? Cobol to Java ? Perl to Java ? Translating such languages
>to Java source code will prove pretty cumbersome, classes will have to
>be designed for almost every syntactical construct of the source
>language, the resulting performance will be poor (How do you translate
>Cobol's PERFORM THRU into Java source code ?)


Note that just because it might be a perfectly rotten idea doesn't
mean it won't happen.


Ten years ago or so, I bid on a DoD contract with another fellow to
provide the U.S. DoD with automated translators which would translate
FORTRAN to Ada and also COBOL to Ada. (We didn't get the contract,
but that is besides the point.)


The contortions that ANYONE would have to go through to implement, for
example, FORTRAN common blocks in Ada is obviously quite ugly, and the
translation of COBOL's ``MOVE CORRESPONDING'' is not terribly pretty
either.


But all this was irrelevant, because there was a PAYING customer
(i.e. DoD) who wanted these translators, come hell or high water.


That's the wonderful thing about the DoD. Considerations of whether
or not an idea make any sense technically, or from a business
standpoint (i..e cost/benefit) isn't all that relevant to their
decisions about what they are going to buy or not buy.


It is a Good Thing for us toolsmiths that such customers exist, even if
only in limited numbers. A high tide (of loose cash) raises all boats.
--


-- Ron Guilmette, Roseville, CA ---
---- E-mail: rfg@monkeys.com ------
--

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