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> One language could combine the 2nd and 3rd level though. A language that can be interpreted during development for fast iteration cycle, but compiled for bett

> One language could combine the 2nd and 3rd level though. A language that can be interpreted during development for fast iteration cycle, but compiled for better performance for deployment. There isn’t such a language popular today though. I'm not sure if Dart counts as "popular", but it otherwise fits this bill. It has a JIT and can startup pretty quickly and interpret on the fly. You can also hot reload code changes while a program is running. And it can ahead-of-time compile to efficient machine code when you're ready to ship.

layer8 2y ago
Many interpreted languages use an intermediate representation and/or JIT compilation internally, like for example Python with its .pyc files. And Java as a level-2 language only compiles to bytecode (class files) which by default is then interpreted, and typically only JIT-compiled for “hot” code. The distinction between levels 3 and 2 is more about how the application is distributed for execution, in source-code form vs. in some compiled binary form.
- munificent 2y ago
  > Many interpreted languages use an intermediate representation and/or JIT compilation internally, like for example Python with its .pyc files. Yes, but Python, Ruby, Lua, etc. are also all dynamically typed, which places them in level 4. > And Java as a level-2 language only compiles to bytecode (class files) which by default is then interpreted, and typically only JIT-compiled for “hot” code. Yes, but Java is generally only run in the JVM and is not often compiled ahead-of-time to a static executable. There are AOT compilers for Java, but the performance isn't great. Java was designed to run in a VM. Classloaders, static initializers, reflection, every-method-is-virtual all make it quite difficult to compile Java to a static executable and get decent performance. Dart was designed to be a decent AOT target.

layer8 2y ago

Many interpreted languages use an intermediate representation and/or JIT compilation internally, like for example Python with its .pyc files. And Java as a level-2 language only compiles to bytecode (class files) which by default is then interpreted, and typically only JIT-compiled for “hot” code. The distinction between levels 3 and 2 is more about how the application is distributed for execution, in source-code form vs. in some compiled binary form.

munificent 2y ago
> Many interpreted languages use an intermediate representation and/or JIT compilation internally, like for example Python with its .pyc files. Yes, but Python, Ruby, Lua, etc. are also all dynamically typed, which places them in level 4. > And Java as a level-2 language only compiles to bytecode (class files) which by default is then interpreted, and typically only JIT-compiled for “hot” code. Yes, but Java is generally only run in the JVM and is not often compiled ahead-of-time to a static executable. There are AOT compilers for Java, but the performance isn't great. Java was designed to run in a VM. Classloaders, static initializers, reflection, every-method-is-virtual all make it quite difficult to compile Java to a static executable and get decent performance. Dart was designed to be a decent AOT target.