Re:Records Come to Java
by paulddraper on Friday January 17, 2020 @03:29PM
(#22078868)
> That sounds as ex post facto justification.
The initial reason was indeed backwards compatibility. As it turns out, compatibility with Java 1 unintentionally yielded compatibility with future languages too.
Because of this flexibility (ex post facto notwithstanding), the JVM became the most popular VM target ever.
Note that GraalVM -- which from day 1 intended to be a multilingual VM -- also uses type erasure.
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Know that there is more than conceptualization of a type system, and in particular a parameterized type system. C vs C++ vs Java vs Haskell. The more of this is baked into the runtime, the more reflection can be done at runtime, but the less interop can be done with other type systems.
(There is a reason why C not C++ is the de facto FFI standard and its not just age.)
The initial reason was indeed backwards compatibility. As it turns out, compatibility with Java 1 unintentionally yielded compatibility with future languages too.
Because of this flexibility (ex post facto notwithstanding), the JVM became the most popular VM target ever.
Note that GraalVM -- which from day 1 intended to be a multilingual VM -- also uses type erasure.
---
Know that there is more than conceptualization of a type system, and in particular a parameterized type system. C vs C++ vs Java vs Haskell. The more of this is baked into the runtime, the more reflection can be done at runtime, but the less interop can be done with other type systems.
(There is a reason why C not C++ is the de facto FFI standard and its not just age.)