[Haskell-cafe] Re: Wikipedia on first-class object

[Aaron Denney]

On 2007-12-28, ChrisK <haskell at list.mightyreason.com> wrote:
> Other note:
>   An imperative language, such as C++ or Java, specified the binary output of
> any instance of the compiler.  Class methods will have very specific names and
> addresses.  In C++ you can even get the member-function pointer values and
> examine the byte offsets in the object.  In Java one gets a very specific layout
> of bytecode in a class file.

These are specified by the ABI, not the language, in most cases.  Java
happens to specify this, but C and C++ do not.  Almost all platforms
define a C ABI.

>   "Haskell" is a declarative language.  It does not specify anything about the
> implementation's internals.

Neither do most languages.

-- 
Aaron Denney
-><-