Clint,
This discussion brings to mind several thoughts that I have repeatedly
had through the years but, sadly, have done nothing about. Here they are,
for what they might be worth:
I strongly believe that having a C#.Net or Java implementation would
greatly increase the chance of Unicon getting a "mainstream" foothold.
I work in a .Net shop. We are "language-restricted", i.e., we are only
allowed to use C# or Java (even VB.Net is prohibited). Thus, I am only
able to use Unicon for personal data-processing tasks. The "advantage" to
this has been that I have been motivated to learn to use C# constructs such
as iterators to implement algorithms that I would have implemented in Icon
using generators. However, if I had a C# library implementing Unicon, then
I [might] be able to employ Unicon as a "domain specific language"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain-specific_language
for computation that is more suitably expressed and maintained in Unicon
than C#.
One thing that impressed and annoyed me when I played with Jcon was that
it was compiled to Java bytecode. On the plus side, this meant that no
Icon runtime would be needed on the target computer. On the minus side,
this meant that each program would need to be recompiled with Jcon; had it
instead been an Icon interpreter that could run an Icon VM in the Java VM
and interpret previously translated Icon programs, then it would have been
possible to use it to share a library of programs with the C-based
interpreter without re-translating.
I understand that the Jcon implementation was initially bootstrapped
with an Icon translator written in Icon. I thought that was a fabulous
idea, because, if it had the same output as the C-based translator, it
would ease porting to new platforms because only the interpreter would need
to be re-written.
My final irresponsible thoughts concern web browsers and "the cloud".
About the only thing that all browsers support is JavaScript (ECMAScript).
It might be insane to attempt to implement an interpreter in JavaScript.
However, it might be less crazy to implement a "generalized web service
calling interface" so that someone with only a web browser could run Unicon
programs in the cloud, and so that someone with only a text editor and a
web browser could write and upload programs to the cloud.
Best regards,
Art
2012/1/26 Clinton Jeffery <[email protected]>
> Did Jcon feature a Java-calling interface for interoperability? If it has
> that, I am not aware of it.
>
> The current Unicon implementation is based on its modified iconx
> C-language VM and runtime system and is not especially Java friendly. We
> hope to improve its C-calling interface this year.
>
> I would be curious as to how many Unicon users wish they had a Java or
> .Net implementation and Java-calling or C#-calling interface.
>
> Cheers,
> Clint
>
> 2012/1/25 Вадим Тукаев <[email protected]>
>
>> Whether probably to use Unicon together with Java, as Jcon was used? Than
>> the Unicon can be useful to the Java-programmer?
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>
>
>
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