Very insightful post from why the lucky stiff about the challenges and successes he found when attempting to translate Ruby bytecode to Python bytecode. Money quote:
What amazes me is how close Ruby 1.9 bytecode and Python 2.5 bytecode are. Some things translate almost directly. It is completely obvious that Koichi took his cues from Python. Storing argcount, nlocals, stacksize first. Marshalling bytecodes. Storing classes and methods as nested bytecode fragments.
And, really, if that’s true (and I vouch that it is truly, truly true,) then how are Python and Ruby still on separate runtimes? All of these bogus scaling wars and indented code battles are a huge waste of time.
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Neither of us stands a chance against Javascript. Why persist with this pitiful feud?
Megan McArdle, a.k.a. Jane Galt, suggested a very interesting and smart tax reform plan about five years ago. I don’t agree with everything she’s suggesting, but I agree with most of it, and her rationale is quite sound. It’s a much more nuanced and smarter approach than the “tax simplification” plans proposed by our politicians.
Entrepreneur Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape, sat down with Barack Obama last spring for an hour and a half. He’s finally published his impressions from that meeting. This is a great read — very interesting and inspirational.
Are you in Texas, Ohio, Vermont or Rhode Island? Then be sure to vote in tomorrow’s primary!
Carl was an amazing singer and the star of Jesus Christ Superstar on stage and screen. Check out this rendition of “Superstar” from The Tonight Show in 1994. (If nothing else, check out Young Jay Leno!)