CPython vs. Jython/JPython

[Mike Coffin]

Courageous <jkraska1 at san.rr.com> writes:

> >> I think this poster was referring to the fact that most JVMs are
> >> written in C, necessarily creating a bit of a chicken and the egg
> >> problem. Which isn't to rule out all sorts of other possibilities,
> >> of course. :)
> >
> >Maybe I came in late and missed something, but the statement I quoted
> >doesn't seem to be talking about which came first.
> 
> Um. I really don't know the posters original intent, but most arguments
> of this sort allude to general tendency of Java users to execute their
> java byte codes on a JVM. This JVM is usually written in C. Ergo it
> is "impossible" to have faster Java than C, because it's really C which
> is doing the execution.
>
> This is forgetting native compilers, and the like, course. This is also
> forgetting various advantages one might not use given standard normal
> practices in one language and not the other.

It's also forgetting that a JVM contains a compiler.  It *isn't*
really C doing the execution.  If the JVM is written in C, it is C
doing the compilation.  The quality of the code coming out of a
compiler has very little to do with what language the compiler is
written in.  

-mike