Re: [Caml-list] OCaml runtime system and Java

[Jacques Garrigue <garrigue@kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp>]

From: Alain Frisch <frisch@clipper.ens.fr>

> It seems than a few OCaml users have considered various approaches for
> running Caml programs on the Java VM. Has there been some attempt to do
> it the other way round, that is to run Java on the OCaml runtime system ?
> 
> It could be with the full OCaml VM, or maybe more realistically, with a
> specialized VM using only the OCaml memory model (GC and block layout)
> and thread scheduling. Would it be difficult to implement (in C for
> instance) a Java VM on top of the OCaml runtime system ?

You do not need C. What appeared from experience is that ocamlopt is
more than enough for practical use: for a project we had a programmer
write a full fledge Java VM in ocaml, able of running an XML parser
for instance. He did it in about a month, and the speed was about a
factor 3 of the Java JDK VM (without JIT, of course). If speed is not
your main concern (it shouldn't be if you're using Java anyway :-)),
then it should be enough.

It is only a VM, and does not contain extra runtime extensions, like
the GUI, and does not implement the bytecode checker, but I suppose
some people might have a use for that anyway.

We plan to release this code, but this may take some time as the
project was with a company, and they must agree. However the company
is used to open sourcing, and I see no reason they would refuse.

Jacques

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