One Runtime To Bind Them All

Sowbug writes "Here's some interesting Saturday night reading: a critical examination of many of the advertised benefits of .NET's CLR (Common Language Runtime) and the other technologies (MSIL, CLS, CTS) that make it possible. It's written from the perspective of a Java advocate, Osvaldo Pinali Doederlein. "

Thats *more* biased

[SimonK]

Meyer brought into .NET from an early stage, as did several other academics with pet languages noone ever uses. He doesn't tackle the (huge) issues with actually implementing Eiffel on the CLR, probably because he's starting to lose touch with reality due to spending too much time being a pundit.

The obvious solution

[lkaos]

If it is desired to have a multi-language runtime to run on any platform, then the answer is simply:

Use an x86 emulator for all non-x86 platforms.

Let's be frank, Windows doesn't run on many(any?) non-x86 platforms so this makes a bit of sense. Instead of trying to design OOP intrinsically into the run-time, why not just agree on a common ABI.

Protection mechanisms can be handled through the run-time library. There really is not need for a CLR that is truly capable of running multiple languages.

That is not what MS is after though. MS is trying to compete with Java. There is no need for a CLR. This article really hits on a key issue.

Different hardware, different languages, and different ABI's all exist because they fit different niches. There can never be a system that handles everything as efficently.

Re:Well, m$ has to do something.

[Deluge]

"what about Servlet programming and JSP for dynamic web pages and database connectivity? These are desktop applications! They just run in a browser; on the desktop"

Very true. .jsp pages seem to be by far the most common dynamic pages seen on bank and investment websites. I'd say that seeing such heavy use in such demanding environments speaks quite well to how successful java's been.

The LOTR reference is hauntingly correct!

[KlomDark]

Remember the whole story about the _other_ rings: Power given to the leaders, to control their people. Of course, the leaders took the rings out of their personal greed. Sauron completely takes them, as he is able to control all the other rings, and holders of those rings, with the ONE RING.

Sounds just like it: Here, use these beautiful new "rings" (.NET), and all will be good. At least until I use my super-powers to control you when you least expect it.