Contents

• List of Figures
• Introduction
  • The Java Virtual Machine
    • Purpose of the JVM
    • The JVM Class File
    • Code Segments in the JVM
    • Bytecode Verification and Security
  • Why Port Non-Java Languages to the JVM?
    • Hardware JVMs
    • Embedded Software JVMs
    • Language Integration via the JVM
    • The .NET Factor
  • Porting Challenges
    • General Challenges
    • Perl-Specific Challenges
  
  
• Possible Approaches
  • JNI
  • Survey of Approaches
    • Implementation of a Language Interpreter in Java
    • Compilation from Source Language to Java
    • Direct Compilation to JVM Bytecode
    • Mapping Language Idioms onto the JVM
  • Which Approach for Perl?
  
  
• Internals of perl
  • perl As a Compiler and Virtual Machine
  • The perl Intermediate Representation
    • The ``Defined'' Example
    • The ``Add and Print'' Example
  • Accessing the IR via B
  
  
• First Approach--Direct Compilation
  • Using Jasmin Assembler
  • Data Type Support
  • Putting It Together with B
  • The ``Defined'' Example with B::JVM::Jasmin
  • Failure of this Method
  
  
• Second Approach--Kawa Integration
  • A New Layer of Abstraction
  • The Kawa IR
  • The ``Add and Print'' Example with Kawa
  
  
• Conclusions and Future Work
• Bibliography