Message-ID: <3AE6D7AC.F15FF9C5@csi.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 09:57:00 -0400
From: John Colagioia <JColagioia@csi.com>
Organization: No Conspiracy Here...
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Subject: Re: Sycamora Tree: "Inform is outdated"
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John Elliott wrote:

> John Colagioia <JColagioia@csi.com> wrote:
> >I believe (and this is my own, personal, semi-biased opinion, having looked
> >at both the JVM and the Z-Machine in some detail) that the Z-Machine (and, by
> >association, Inform) is far more flexible and extensible than the JVM (and,
> >by association, Java--and by further association, anything WRITTEN in Java),
> >simply because the Z-Machine has a smaller amount of overhead, meaning that
> >it has an advantage from the start.
>
>   While I agree with the remainder of your sentiments, I don't think the
> Z-Machine is more _extensible_ than the Java VM. If it were, then you'd be
> able to write Z-Code games that supported plugins:

The "plugin" concept is a separate technology from the JVM.  It could
easily
(well, with significant motivation) to build that into the ZVM using
the same
minimal-footprint concepts that the main machine uses.

>  - of course, to get this to work properly, you'd need an incredibly
> simulationist class library, probably as big as the Java class libraries.

The libraries would be huge.  However, compiled to compact Z-Code
rather than Java
Bytecode, you'd be able to fit far more in any given machine.

Again, with proper motivation.  I somehow doubt anyone has that sort of
unearthly
motivation, however.

Heh...I'd love for someone to prove me wrong, though...
