Operating systems and Java becoming a "machine" language

There is a quite intersting article from Information Week on operating systems and where they are heading. In it there is a reference to BEA cutting out the opertaing system and letting the JVM talk direclty to the hardware. So what is the operating system in that case? One could argue that without it, the JVM itself is what comes closest to be an OS, or something like it.

Anyway I do see some movement in the direction of Java becoming the "machine language", i.e. the language and runtime system for programs written in other languages. To be more precise; the other language is implemented in Java. John Rose at Sun has an intersting blog entry on duck typing, and the implication of using Java as a "system implementation language" of the JVM.

What languages implemented in Java are there? Well, the one I first thought about is JRuby. But there are also; Jython, JavaScript, Groovy, etc. There are of course many many more, see "Programming Languages for the Java Virtual Machine" site for an assortment. And while at it, why not devise a language of your own by defining a grammar for it to start by using the ANTLR parser generator, then just add some .... There are some initial experiments in this area to make an Io implementation in Java. Ola Bini has created a lexer using just ANTLR. Neat!

If you are interested in deeper discussions regarding JRuby, check out Ola Bini's blog. He is one of the principal developers working on the JRuby implementation.