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by ptx 3 days ago
From the introduction section of the Java specification [1]:

"The Java Virtual Machine is the cornerstone of the Java platform. It is the component of the technology responsible for its hardware- and operating system-independence, the small size of its compiled code, and its ability to protect users from malicious programs."

[1] https://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jvms/se26/html/jvms-1.h...
1 comments
dtj1123 3 days ago
From the same link, opening sentence:

"The Java® programming language is a general-purpose, concurrent, object-oriented language."

Edit: Having thought a little, I appreciate that it's possible to compile for the JVM from source code which is not Java, which makes the JVM a compilation target. As far as I'm aware the JVM doesn't have first class support for this though, It's been tacked on as an afterthought. Compiling C to JVM bytecode for example doesn't appear to be an enjoyable process. WASM on the other hand was designed explicity to function as a compilation target for arbitrary languages.

Maybe I'm missing something, happy to be proven wrong.

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ptx 3 days ago
There are (or have been) lots of languages using the JVM as a compilation target, whether it is well-suited for this or not. Wikipedia has a partial list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_JVM_languages
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dtj1123 3 days ago
My point is that it isn't well suited for it. Hence WASM.
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