It seems like wasm will finally enable the "write once, run everywhere" promise that java made but never truly executed by starting with the premise that you don't need "one true language" (java), but rather just the VM.

Yeah, I know the JVM supports several languages these days but most require non-superficial similarities to Java (garbage collected, etc.)

> most require non-superficial similarities to Java (garbage collected, etc.)

You can (obviously) implement any language without garbage collection semantics using garbage collection, so this requirement is false.

See for example languages like C and C++ running on the JVM.

drzaiusx11

Has this been done without jumping through hoops like compiling to a specific CPU target with GCC then doing a binary conversion to JVM bytecode (NestedVM does this via MIPS I believe)?

kodablah

Depends on what you mean by hoops (ala clang), but there is Graal which can run LLVM bitcode [0] but I am unsure if it can compile it. I have personally compiled C code to WASM and then to the JVM via [1]. C/C++ are complex (and/or have complex optimizations) so a compiler should be used, but doesn't necessarily have to target a specific CPU but still have to have a bit-preference and what not. And of course once you interact with the system, some abstraction has to occur somewhere.

0 - http://www.graalvm.org/docs/getting-started/#running-llvm-in... 1 - https://github.com/cretz/asmble