Re: Targeting the Lua VM

[KHMan <keinhong@...>]

Ernst Rohlicek jun. wrote:
> [snip]
> Since Lua internally uses a VM, is it made for / possible to target the
> VM with another language - ie. "compile" Python / Ruby / etc. code into
> the Lua bytecode format? (even when some intermediate code would be
> required for the according semantics)? - Is the Lua VM general enough
> for this?

Subset are probably possible. Full implementations, probably
problematic.

> Reason is: I'm looking for a VM / framework to allow various dynamic
> languages to access each other's objects and use a common object /
> bytecode format = separate the execution / bytecode / VM from the syntax
> and semantics. Could be fun :-) - If anyone has done research into this
> area, I'd be very grateful for projects already working on this - thanks!

I think CLR and Parrot already solves the multiple scripting
language problem in a more practical way. After fixing up the Lua
VM to implement various languages efficiently, you'd probably end
up with something like CLR or Parrot. So, why reinvent the wheel?
Something with Lua VM is probably better for language subsets, so
for general interpretation of language sources, it won't fit the bill.

-- 
Cheers,
Kein-Hong Man (esq.)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia