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What's with all the nitpicking? I just don't get it. What is claimed today is entirely reasonable. The landing page says SIMILAR to Java. It doesn't say run

What's with all the nitpicking? I just don't get it. What is claimed today is entirely reasonable. The landing page says SIMILAR to Java. It doesn't say runs identically on exactly all versions of every system that Java programs will run on. Also, this is a C binary we are talking about. Fundamentally, a C binary will not run on multiple architectures (at least not without some sort of special translation mechanism like Rosetta or qemu user-mode emulation). "Modern desktops and servers" is still pretty much x86-64 for most of the world. Yes, I know there are ARM servers and I'm typing this on an M1 Mac and I own nearly all kinds of Raspberry Pi's (even the minor revs of some models).

KMag 5y ago
> Fundamentally, a C binary will not run on multiple architectures (at least not without some sort of special translation mechanism like Rosetta or qemu user-mode emulation). The C machine model doesn't dictate native compilation. You could (and in fact IBM OS/400 does[0]) compile C to a binary format that does run on multiple architectures. Maybe instead of "C binary" you meant "C compiled to native binary", but that linguistic shortcut also encourages a mental shortcut that excludes several interesting design tradeoffs. In the IBM TIMI case, the equivalent of setting the execute bit on the binary triggers OS/400 to perform the native code generation and save that native code to disk, similar to some versions of Android Runtime, but without mandatory garbage collection. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_i#TIMI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_i#TIMI
- sigjuice 5y ago
  Yes, C does not dictate native compilation. In fact, C doesn't even dictate compilation. There are various C interpreters, aren't there?
  - KMag 5y ago
    Yes, the MIT 6.270 robot competition in January 1998 definitely ran the robot using a C interpreter on an ARM board.
robertlagrant 5y ago
I wasn't making a point about the claimed error. I was saying "think of what can be done in the future" is not relevant.

KMag 5y ago

> Fundamentally, a C binary will not run on multiple architectures (at least not without some sort of special translation mechanism like Rosetta or qemu user-mode emulation). The C machine model doesn't dictate native compilation. You could (and in fact IBM OS/400 does[0]) compile C to a binary format that does run on multiple architectures. Maybe instead of "C binary" you meant "C compiled to native binary", but that linguistic shortcut also encourages a mental shortcut that excludes several interesting design tradeoffs. In the IBM TIMI case, the equivalent of setting the execute bit on the binary triggers OS/400 to perform the native code generation and save that native code to disk, similar to some versions of Android Runtime, but without mandatory garbage collection. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_i#TIMI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_i#TIMI

sigjuice 5y ago
Yes, C does not dictate native compilation. In fact, C doesn't even dictate compilation. There are various C interpreters, aren't there?
- KMag 5y ago
  Yes, the MIT 6.270 robot competition in January 1998 definitely ran the robot using a C interpreter on an ARM board.

robertlagrant 5y ago

I wasn't making a point about the claimed error. I was saying "think of what can be done in the future" is not relevant.