[1593] in java-interest
Re: Systems Programming Oriented Java
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Walter Smith)
Fri Sep 8 17:13:57 1995
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 1995 11:21:55 -0800
To: "John D. Ramsdell" <ramsdell@linus.mitre.org>
From: wrs@newton.apple.com (Walter Smith)
Cc: java-interest@java.sun.com
>> Rather than a new dialect, one could add a _few_ optional "unsafe"
>> constructs, such as untraced pointers and unsafe casting, to Java.
>
>This may be all that is needed for Modular-3, but I'm not sure it is
>all that is needed for Java. What about pointers to procedures, for
>example. Doesn't this require new types and syntax?
Yes, as I said later in that message, there are some things missing from
Java's basic attitude that would have to be added, like the whole concept
of procedures. That would make this approach less desirable (but perhaps
not UNdesirable).
>At some point, one wants the ability to run low level systems
>programming applications with a C-like runtime system rather than a
>Java-like runtime system. The rules for using the language with the
>differing runtime systems must change. I suspect Modular-3 has
>multiple runtime systems.
Modula-3 has only one runtime system. However, when you're writing the
code that implements the runtime system, you don't use the features of the
runtime system. (If you're writing the ANSI C library in ANSI C, you don't
use printf to implement printf, despite the fact that printf is part of
ANSI C.)
To reiterate the big problem with retrofitting this approach into Java: It
requires that your language define "unsafe" semantics all the way to the
processor, even if you aren't allowed to use them most of the time. Some
find it nicer to integrate unsafeness into the one language, others find it
nicer to program unsafe stuff in a separate unsafe language. It's a matter
of taste at this point.
- W
[BTW, I'm going on vacation for a month, so if you send me mail, please be
patient!]
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