[Haskell-cafe] Re: haskell parser for java bytecode?

[Kimberley Burchett]

Jerzy Karczmarczuk asked:
>
> Why for goodness' sake, people interested in Haskell *should* worry
> about parsing of Java bytecode chunks?

Are you asking why I'm interested in bytecode instead of source code, or 
are you asking why I'm interested in Java at all?

One answer to the first question is: because java bytecode is a simpler 
problem domain than java source.  For example, name resolution is trivial 
when working with bytecode (there's no ambiguity between 
package/class/variable names, inherited names are already resolved, 
overloaded functions are already resolved, etc).  Also, many of the newer 
features of java disappear at the bytecode level: inner classes, generics, 
the new foreach statement, etc.

Another answer to the first question is: because java bytecode can be used 
as a target for several languages these days, and by working with it 
directly, I can work with any language that compiles to the jvm, rather 
than restricting myself just to java.

The answer to the second question is: because the rest of the world 
matters to some people.

Kimberley Burchett
http://www.kimbly.com/