D vs VM-based platforms

[Sean Kelly]

Walter Bright wrote:
> Jascha Wetzel wrote:
>>> It's *already* abstracted away from the target machine, why add another
>>> layer of abstraction?
>>
>> to have a format for distribution that's still abstract but not human
>> readable.
> 
> There's no point to that, since there are very good bytecode => java 
> source translators. Running your source through a comment stripper would 
> be about as good.

What I find amazing is that a good bytecode => source translator for 
.NET will often produce the original source code... exactly.  I assume 
the information is all present for reflection purposes, but I've never 
been able to get over it.  The first time it was shown to me I expected 
to see some half readable mess, not a photographic duplicate of the 
original source code.


Sean