Running D in the Java VM

[Paulo Pinto]

On Friday, 15 November 2013 at 07:13:34 UTC, Jeremy DeHaan wrote:
> Hey everyone!
>
> I have been experimenting for the past couple of days with an 
> idea I had, and since I recently made a little progress I 
> thought I would share some of what I have been doing with you. 
> What I have done, in a nutshell, is began the process for a 
> language converter that takes D source files, converts them 
> into Java source files, and then compiles them as Java class 
> files so that they can be ran on Java's VM. It is extremely 
> limited in what it can do right now, only being able to 
> convert/compile a simple Hello World program, but I was proud 
> of myself for getting even that far so I wanted to brag. :P
>
> You may want to ask, "Hey, man. D is a great language. Why 
> would I ever want to convert it to Java?" Normally, you 
> wouldn't. Java blows. What I am envisioning for this project is 
> something quite magical in my opinion. If we can take D code 
> and have it compile into Java class files, we can then compile 
> them into Android dex files. This would make D able to build 
> and run on Android devices through its VM. Sure, people are 
> working on getting D to compile to ARM binaries, but this could 
> be another option as a Java alternative on Android.(eventually)
>
> Unfortunately I do not know much about compilers, but even in 
> the last couple of days I feel like I have learned a great deal 
> about what kinds of stuff goes into them. Eventually I'd like 
> to make a full blown compiler that takes D code and can go 
> right to dex files, but that would be something that would 
> happen way down the road. In order to get D working on Android 
> sooner, I figured a language converter would be the easier 
> route.
>
> I can, and would love to go in to more detail about this, but 
> it is getting late and this post is already quite long. Maybe I 
> should start a blog about my D escapades? Anyways, I would love 
> to hear feedback on this idea! Thanks for your time!

It is an impossible task, because many of the D semantics cannot 
be expressed in JVM/Dalvik bytecode.

--
Paulo