alt Hacker NewsJEP 544: Ahead-of-Time Code Compilation
Comments
Startup time being the main benefit means simple training runs get you most of the value. Going for peak throughput is where the setup gets heavy.
What are the architectural differences between this and Android's ahead-of-time runtime?
A little late, isn't it? .NET has had this for over 20 years (pre-compile).
Excelsior JET did that 25 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excelsior_JET
It's a shame that Sun/Oracle never partnered with them to bring native apps. This could have saved Java on the desktop.
I hope at some point we'll get AOT-only mode (or compile to native) and maybe even cross-compilation.
[dead]
So we've gone full circle again?
I suppose write once run anywhere is no longer a goal either.
"It is not a goal to support all CPU architectures currently supported by HotSpot."
This pretty much validates the point of view that VM design is now baggage, as a sandbox it has been flawed, for performance it's been prohibitive, and cross platform portability by virtue of being virtual, was just a convenient byproduct.
AI now handles the portability, sandbox security hasn't changed (cf. docker still has sandbox problems, LLMs have sandbox problems, it's always an ongoing concern) and that just leaves Java, as always, chasing performance.
Leyden has been relying pretty heavily on training runs which I get, but man is that a pretty hard burden to setup.
The tooling for doing these sorts of training runs doesn't really exist, you end up needing to do something more bespoke as part of your build pipeline if you want it there. That can be especially tricky with more complicated applications like the ones I maintain.
I like what these can deliver, but dislike the effort needed to get it going.