sun memo reveals java's bloat, puts it on a par with python

[John Roth]

"Wolfgang Lipp" <lipp at epost.de> wrote in message
news:c0f3952d.0302160513.1bfbd368 at posting.google.com...
> i´m not entirely sure it´s real -- i mean, how can anything
> on the net ever be 'real', come on -- but as one poster
> on
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/02/09/1347215&mode=thre
> said "The memo may be a fake, but it's right on target.", or,
> for the friends of the italian opera, "si non e vero, e ben
> trovado". however, i dont find a 'real blooper' either --
> john, you're probably referring to this:
>
> difference is that Python is a scripting language.
>     This means there is no compilation to byte code so
>     the Python runtime environment has to do two things
>     in addition to what the Java runtime environment
>     does. It has to perform syntax checks and it must
>     parse the ascii text provided by the programmer.
>
> that does read like a claim that python does no compilation
> to bytecode, but is probably intended to mean that 'there
> is no prior compilation to bytecode that the runtime can
> rely on', which is the reason the python r.e. must, before it
> can actually run a program, 'perform syntax checks' and 'read
> ascii'. that makes sense.

Neither statement is true, or else all those .pyc files
littering my hard disk are a delusion.

What is true is that Python does not require a
*separate* compilation step separate from the
runtime. The compiler is integrated into the interpreter,
but it is only used when the module hasn't been compiled.

That's an implementation tactic that has more to do with
the intended usage of the language than anything
fundamental.

John Roth