Typing system vs. Java

[Skip Montanaro]

    Michael> Well, it's interesting to look at the byte code interpreter
    Michael> source and to consider just how much time and effort is spent
    Michael> in working out what the types of operands are and therefore
    Michael> which particular operation to invoke.  You can't avoid that
    Michael> without static typing of some sort.

Not so fast, bucko. ;-)

The prototypical proof-by-existence is Self.  Check out

    http://www.sun.com/research/self/

Also, who said you had to compile your code before running it?  Armin Rego
has been working on something called Psyco (Python Specializing Compiler)
that at runtime converts VM bytecodes into another -- partially typed --
virtual machine based upon the types of the inputs it sees.

-- 
Skip Montanaro (skip at pobox.com)
http://www.mojam.com/
http://www.musi-cal.com/