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From: fjh@mundook.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Fergus Henderson)
Subject: Re: ADA CORE TECHNOLOGIES ANNOUNCES GNAT-TO-JAVA SYSTEM
Date: 1997/09/21
Message-ID: <602opd$f2h@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 274208673
References: <dewar.873998738@merv> <34196E8E.1790@gsfc.nasa.gov>
 <dewar.874165896@merv> <341B2309.4A41@ibm.net> <dewar.874272343@merv>
 <Pine.SGI.3.95.970916190623.19184E-100000@shellx.best.com>
 <34204085.5377@ibm.net> <dewar.874623267@merv>
 <5vt73c$3nk$1@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au> <dewar.874760620@merv>
Organization: Comp Sci, University of Melbourne
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1997-09-21T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) writes:

 >[Richard O'Keefe writes:]
 ><<Nope.  "Slim binaries" are absolutely NOTHING LIKE P-code.
 >Slim binaries are based on two ideas:
 >    - source code compresses very well
 >    - IO is slow.
...
 >    > compressed annotated abstract syntax graphs <
 >
 >At run-time, the Juice system reads the slim binary, decompressing and
 >building the AST as it goes, and then runs a normal compiler back end
 >to generate native code.>>
 >
 >This only makes sense if your compilers have succeeded in employing the
 >techniques we developed in the 70's and early 80's to make compiler
 >front ends absurdly slow.

I don't agree.  There is an advantage in using a different format
than source code for distribution, even if parsing speed is ignored.
The advantage is that you can solve most of problem #1 of the two
you mention below.

 >In practice, distribution of source has two problems, of a very different
 >nature:
 >
 >1. Building large systems from sources can be a very tricky business,
 >requiring skills that a user of the system does not necessarily have.
 >
 >2. For those who want to keep their software proprietary, distributing
 >sources fills them with horror :-)

--
Fergus Henderson <fjh@cs.mu.oz.au>   |  "I have always known that the pursuit
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>   |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
PGP: finger fjh@128.250.37.3         |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.