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Kawa|compiling dynamic languages to the Java VM (1998)
| Venue: | In Proceedings of the USENIX Technical Conference, FREENIX Track |
| Citations: | 13 - 0 self |
BibTeX
@INPROCEEDINGS{Bothner98kawa|compilingdynamic,
author = {Per Bothner},
title = {Kawa|compiling dynamic languages to the Java VM},
booktitle = {In Proceedings of the USENIX Technical Conference, FREENIX Track},
year = {1998},
publisher = {USENIX Association}
}
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Abstract
Many are interested in Java for its portable bytecodes and extensive libraries, but prefer a different language, especially for scripting. People have implemented other languages using an interpreter (which is slow), or by translating into Java source (with poor responsiveness for eval). Kawa uses an interpreter only for “simple” expressions; all non-trivial expressions (such as function definitions) are compiled into Java bytecodes, which are emitted into an in-memory byte array. This can be saved for later, or quickly loaded using the Java ClassLoader. Kawa is intended to be a framework that supports multiple source languages. Currently, it only supports Scheme, which is a lexically-scoped language in the Lisp family. The Kawa dialect of Scheme implements almost all of the current Scheme standard (R5RS), with a number of extensions, and is written in a efficient objectoriented style. It includes the full “numeric tower”, with complex numbers, exact infinite-precision rational arithmetic, and units. A number of extensions provide access to Java primitives, and some Java methods provide convenient access to Scheme. Since all Java objects are Scheme values and vice versa, this makes for a very powerful hybrid Java/Scheme environment. An implementation of ECMAScript (the standardized “core ” of JavaScript) is under construction. Other languages, including Emacs Lisp, are also being considered.
Keyphrases
dynamic language java vm scheme value simple expression vice versa emacs lisp extensive library java method scheme implement powerful hybrid java scheme environment current scheme standard java object complex number java bytecodes lisp family in-memory byte array java classloader exact infinite-precision rational arithmetic different language efficient objectoriented style convenient access portable bytecodes java primitive multiple source language poor responsiveness full numeric tower non-trivial expression kawa dialect lexically-scoped language function definition java source
