Re: C++ to JVM compiler

From:
Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.java.programmer
Date:
Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:40:58 GMT
Message-ID:
<K77Qj.23650$mw4.17555@trnddc04>
jhc0033@gmail.com wrote:

Now that Java is going open-source again, I hope this project will be
resurrected. C++ and Java are the most widely used languages. It's a
shame that C++ can not be compiled to JVM, even though there is a ton
of platforms that it can be compiled to, and there is a ton of
languages that do compile to JVM.


Any C++-to-JVM compilation would have to be imprecise and rely on
several heuristics. Pointer arithmetic, rather common in C++ code, does
not convert to JVM bytecode well. Quirks of templates in C++ make
conversion to Java generics near impossible unless Java gains
reification. Finally, any crazy stuff I could do with function pointers
would not translate well.

* run some C++ code faster (Java sometimes beats C++ on numerics-heavy
tests - currently rare, but things seem to be changing in favor of
JIT)


This is a large bone of contention, but the two languages are more or
less equally fast these days. Likely the C++ code would be slowed down
as some imprecise translations would use hackier crutches.

* run C++ safely - I know there are arrogant C++ coders who would
claim that their C++ code can not be exploited, but is there an
automated way to prove that?


GCC dehydra? <http://wiki.mozilla.org/Dehydra_GCC>. Of course, you have
to write the tests first.

(This could make a great summer-of-code project, unless it's too hard
- I don't actually know)


I am not an expert in this area, but I think it would be on the harder
side. The GSoC application time frame for 2008 has already passed, though...

--
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not
tried it. -- Donald E. Knuth

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