About the 0's and 1's, I think Kerry's point was clear. While C++ code, for instance is compiled into native code, that is, code that is "hardwired" to a particular processor, with a particular set of instructions, languages like Actionscript, are compiled to an intermediate representation that is translated into native code for the target platform. Anyway, that's faster than how most Javascript implementations work currently (as far as I know), for instance, since the JS environment has first to do the parsing and lexing of the source code, compile it on the fly to bytecode and then translate that to native code. (In all these cases, there might be extra processing layers, I'm talking about the general flow rather than the concrete implementation, which I frankly ignore).
So, working with VM bytecode is adding an extra step to the whole process. It pays off in portability and deployment ease, and is a fair trade-off in most cases. And, as it's been pointed out, some languages / envorinments translate the bytecode to native code at load time (.NET on Windows) or through some mix of load-time and on-demand compiling. I understand the flash players does that to some extent, and that Adobe plans to get more stuff JIT compiled, to improve performance. Cheers Juan Pablo Califano 2008/7/30, Kerry Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > Dave Watts wrote: > > > There is arguably some difference between an interpreter and a VM, > though. > > True. We're getting into the nitty-gritty details here, but some > interpreters read the source code as is, without compiling even to an > intermediate bytecode. The original AppleSoft Basic, circa 1978, was one > example. Variable names were limited to two characters to keep speed > acceptable (by the standards of the day, that is--my Blackberry has more > processing power than that old Apple). > > Cordially, > > Kerry Thompson > > _______________________________________________ > Flashcoders mailing list > [email protected] > http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders > _______________________________________________ Flashcoders mailing list [email protected] http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
