Re: java bytecode considered bad

[Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs dot mu dot oz dot au>]

On 21-Feb-2001, Trent Waddington <s337240@student.uq.edu.au> wrote:
> From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
> To: s337240@student.uq.edu.au
> Subject: Re: java backend
> 
> If it is possible to compile languages such as C into Java byte codes,
> I see a great danger.  The danger is that people will use Java byte
> codes to hook GCC up to proprietary back ends and proprietary front
> ends.

People can already hook GCC up to proprietry front ends by simply
having their front end generate C code.  There are certainly a number
of proprietry language front ends around that generate C code, e.g.
Cfront (the original C++ compiler), some Eiffel compilers, etc., as
well as many free software compilers that do the same.  And if you
plan to use the GNU back-end, then C is almost certainly going to be a
better target language than Java or Java byte codes.  So I think the
worry about proprietry front ends is misplaced.  The cat is out of the
bag, and whatever damage will result from that is already unstoppable.

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