bytecode unification for scripting languages

[Shriram Krishnamurthi <sk@cs.brown.edu>]

I would be surprised to see continuations in such a common runtime.
And even if they were there, I suspect there would be many tricky
issues involved in supporting them consistently across languages.  I
doubt "stackless" Python has DYNAMIC-WIND, which fundamentally affects 
the implementation of CALL/CC.

In the end, what's the point here?  Microsoft's .NET is already
shipping, and they will be releasing a sorta-kinda-open source
implementation next year.  Sure, it's not going to be as fast as the
native Windows version, but I have no reason to believe yet another
soaker-upper of hacking resources (Parrot) is going to attract the
world's great optimizer writers.  More likely the good optimization
work will happen for the CIL.  So this will merely create a new,
incompatible run-time system.

Why not take the CIL/CLR spec and build a really great implementation
of it instead?  Here's an opportunity where Linux and the Open Source
movement can completely embarass Microsoft.  Be the first to provide a
free and openly hackable implementation of it, well before Microsft
does, and make the Linux version run five times as fast as the Windows
version.  Now *there* would be something impressive.

Doubt it'll happen.

Shriram

PS: Full disclosure: I just spent 3 days at MS hearing about .NET.
    But my comments are based not on the fact that I'm easily bought
    -- perhaps I am -- but rather than the CIL/CLR is, at least on
    paper, *good*.  The Open Source movement has never led the way in
    the design of *anything*, anyway, afaik.  Why would I assume
    Parrot would be better in any sense other than the strictly
    ideological?