On Tue, 5 Oct 1999, Chris Toshok wrote:
>[re: storing local variable types on the stack]
> It's not like removing the assignment of the local variable
> type is going to halve the code being executed. This has to be the same in
> other VM's as well.
That's only true if they're checking stack types (and sizes) at runtime,
which I think most aren't. I think the common approach is to use the
bytecode verifier to do all the checks in advance, and then at runtime
just let things run unencumbered. Code that doesn't go through the
bytecode verifier (e.g., loaded off the local disk without the '-verify'
option in Sun's VM) can do illegal stuff and even crash the VM.
If you assemble some code that does an istore followed by an aload, and
run it on Sun's VM from the local disk without the '-verify' option, I'm
almost certain it will work. I can verify this if desired.
