Comparison of application virtualization software: Difference between revisions

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'''Application virtualization software''' refers to both application [[virtual machine]]s and software responsible for implementing them. Application virtual machines are typically used to allow application [[bytecode]] to run portably on many different computer architectures and operating systems. The application is usually run on the computer using an [[Interpreter (computing)|interpreter]] or [[just-in-time compilation]] (JIT). There are often several implementations of a given virtual machine, each covering a different set of functions.

==Comparison of virtual machines==

{{Hatnote|[[JavaScript]] machines not included. See [[List of ECMAScript engines]] to find them.}}

The table here summarizes elements for which the virtual machine designs are intended to be efficient, not the list of abilities present in any implementation.

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| automatic

| {{yes}}

| {{noyes}}

| {{noyes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{dunno}}

| {{noyes}}

| {{noyes}}

|-

! [[Common Language Runtime]] (CLR)

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| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{noyes}}

| {{noyes}}

|-

! [[DotGNU]] [[Portable.NET]]

| [[Stack machine|stack]]

| automatic or manual

| {{noyes}}

| {{noyes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

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| {{no}}

|-

! [[JavaHotSpot (virtual machine)|HotSpot]] ([[Java virtual machine|JVM)]]

| [[Stack machine|stack]]

| automatic

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| [[Stack machine|stack]]

| automatic

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

| {{noyes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{dunno}}

| {{noyes}}

| {{noyes}}

|-

! [[LLVM]]

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| {{yes}}

|-

! [[ErlangBEAM (programmingErlang languagevirtual machine)|BEAM]] ([[Erlang (programming language)|Erlang]])

| [[Register machine|register]]

| automatic

| {{dunno}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|-

! [[MoarVM]]

| [[Register machine|register]]

| automatic

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''[[Just-in-time compilation]]'' (JIT), refers to a method of compiling to native instructions at the latest possible time, usually immediately before or during the running of the program. The challenge of JIT is more one of implementation than of virtual machine design, however, modern designs have begun to make considerations to help efficiency. The simplest JIT methods simply compile to a code fragment similar to an offline compiler. However, more complex methods are often employed, which specialize compiled code fragments to parameters known only at runtime (see [[Adaptive optimization]]).

''[[Ahead-of-time compilation]]'' (AOT) refers to the more classic method of using ana precompiler to generate a set of native instructions which do not change during the runtime of the program. Because aggressive compiling and optimizing can take time, a precompiled program may launch faster than one which relies on JIT alone for execution. JVM implementations have mitigated this startup cost by initial interpreting to speed launch times, until native code fragments can be generated by JIT.

''[[Shared library|Shared libraries]]'' are a facility to reuse segments of native code across multiple running programs. In modern operating systems, this generally means using [[virtual memory]] to share the memory pages containing a shared library across different processes which are protected from each other via [[memory protection]]. It is interesting that aggressive JIT methods such as adaptive optimization often produce code fragments unsuitable for sharing across processes or successive runs of the program, requiring a tradeoff be made between the efficiencies of precompiled and shared code and the advantages of adaptively specialized code. For example, several design provisions of CIL are present to allow for efficient shared libraries, possibly at the cost of more specialized JIT code. The JVM implementation on [[OS X]] uses a Java Shared Archive<ref>[https://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Java/Conceptual/Java14Development/00-Intro/JavaDevelopment.html Apple docs on OS X use of Java Shared Archive]</ref> to provide some of the benefits of shared libraries.

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|-

! [[Virtual machine]]

! [[Programming language|Languages]] executed

! Comments

! [[Interpreter (computing)|Interpreter]]

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! Implementation language

! [[Source lines of code|SLoC]]

|-

! [[JavaBEAM (Erlang virtual machine)|JVMBEAM]]

| [[JavaErlang (programming language)|JavaErlang]], [[Kotlin_Elixir (programming_languageprogramming language)|KotlinElixir]], [[Jython]], [[GroovyGleam (programming language)|GroovyGleam]], [[JRuby]], [[CCuneiform (programming language)|CCuneiform]], [[C++]], [[Clojure]], [[ScalaLFE (programming language)|ScalaLFE]], and severalClojerl, othersLuerl

|

| {{yes}}<ref>https://www.erlang.org/blog/a-closer-look-at-the-interpreter/</ref>

| {{yes}}<ref>https://www.erlang.org/blog/a-first-look-at-the-jit/</ref>

|Erlang, C, C++

|1561k including [[Open Telecom Platform|OTP]]

|-

! [[Common Language Runtime]] (CLR)

| [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]], [[C++/CLI]], [[F Sharp (programming language)|F#]], [[Visual Basic (.NET)|VB.NET]]

| bytecode is [[Common Intermediate Language|CIL]]; [[.NET]] Core Runtime on GitHub

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

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|

|-

! [[Adobe Flash Player]] (aka [[Tamarin (JavaScript enginesoftware)|Tamarin]])

| [[ActionScript]], [[SWF]] (file format)

| interactive web authoring tool.; bytecode is named "''ActionScript Byte Code (.abc)"''

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

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| 15k + 2850 per JIT arch + 500 per host OS

|-

! [[DotGNU]]-[[Portable.NET]]

| [[List of CLI languages|CLI languages]] including: [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]]

| Common Language Runtime clone

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|

|-

! [[Forth virtual(programming machinelanguage)|Forth]]

| [[Forth (programming language)|Forth]]

| Features are simplified, usually include assembler, compiler, text-level and binary-level interpreters, sometimes editor, debugger and OS.; Compilingcompile speedsspeed areis >20 SKLOC/S, and behavebehaves much like JIT.

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

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| C++, OCaml

|

|-

! [[HotSpot (virtual machine)|HotSpot]]

| [[Java (programming language)|Java]], [[Kotlin (programming language)|Kotlin]], [[Jython]], [[Groovy (programming language)|Groovy]], [[JRuby]], [[C (programming language)|C]], [[C++]], [[Clojure]], [[Scala (programming language)|Scala]] and several others

| Reference[[Java virtual machine|JVM]] reference implementation by Sun ; [[OpenJDK]]: code under [[GPL]] ; [[IcedTea]]: code and tools under [[GPL]]

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| [[JDK]], [[OpenJDK]] & [[IcedTea]] with regular JIT : Java, C, C++, ASM ; [[IcedTea]] with the "Zero" JIT : Java, C, C++

| JVMHotSpot is around 6500k lines; [[Technology Compatibility Kit|TCK]] is 80k tests and around 1000k lines

|-

! [[Icon (programming language)|Icon]]

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|C, RTT (a custom front-end to C, provided with the base source for Icon).

| ~180k total. (source to bytecode: ~11k, bytecode interpreter: ~46k, iconc: ~23k, common/headers: ~13k, rtt: ~15k)

|-

! [[Java virtual machine|JVM]]

| [[Java (programming language)|Java]], [[Kotlin_(programming_language)|Kotlin]], [[Jython]], [[Groovy (programming language)|Groovy]], [[JRuby]], [[C (programming language)|C]], [[C++]], [[Clojure]], [[Scala (programming language)|Scala]] and several others

| Reference implementation by Sun ; [[OpenJDK]]: code under [[GPL]] ; [[IcedTea]]: code and tools under [[GPL]]

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| [[JDK]], [[OpenJDK]] & [[IcedTea]] with regular JIT : Java, C, ASM ; [[IcedTea]] with the "Zero" JIT : Java, C

| JVM is around 6500k lines; [[Technology Compatibility Kit|TCK]] is 80k tests and around 1000k lines

|-

! [[LLVM]]

| [[C (programming language)|C]], [[C++]], [[Kotlin_Kotlin (programming_languageprogramming language)|Kotlin]], [[Objective-C]], [[Swift (programming language)|Swift]], [[Ada (programming language)|Ada]], [[Fortran]], and [[Rust (programming language)|Rust]]

| MSIL, C and C++ output are supported. ActionScript Byte Code output is supported by Adobe Alchemy. bytecode is named "LLVM Bytecode (.bc)". assembly is named "LLVM Assembly Language (*.ll)".

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| C++

| 811k <ref name="ohloh-llvm">[http://www.ohloh.net/p/llvm The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120731043158/http://www.ohloh.net/p/llvm |date=2012-07-31}}, ohloh.net, 2011 NovNovember 30</ref>

|-

! [[Lua (programming language)|Lua]]

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|-

! [[Mono (software)|Mono]]

| [[List of CLI languages|CLI languages]] including: [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]], [[Visual Basic (.NET)|VB.NET]], [[IronPython]], [[IronRuby]], and others

| Common Language Runtime clone

| {{yes}}

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| C#, C

| 2332k

|-

! [[Oz (programming language)|Oz]]

| Oz, [[Alice (programming language)|Alice]]

|

|

|

|

|

|-

! [[NekoVM]]

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| C

| 46k

|-

! [[Oz (programming language)|Oz]]

| Oz, [[Alice (programming language)|Alice]]

|

|

|

|

|

|-

! [[O-code machine]]

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| [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]]

| UCSD Pascal, widespread in late 70s including Apple II

|{{yes}}

|

| {{no}}

|

|assembly, Pascal

|

|

|-

! [[Parrot virtual machine|Parrot]]

| Perl ([[Perl#2000–present|Perl 6|65]] &, [[Perl#2000–presentRaku (programming language)|5Raku]]), NQP-rx, [[Parrot intermediary language|PIR]], [[Parrot assembly language|PASM]], [[bytecode|PBC]], [[BASIC]], [[bc (programming language)|bc]], [[C99]], [[ECMAScript]], [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]], [[Lua (programming language)|Lua]], [[GNU m4|m4]], [[Tcl]], [[WMLScript]], [[Simple API for XML#XML processing with SAX|XML]], and others

|

| {{yes}}

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|

| {{yes}}

| {{ubl|[[Psyco]]|[[Unladen Swallow]]}}

| C

| 387k&nbsp;C, 368k&nbsp;Python, 10k&nbsp;ASM, 31k&nbsp;Psyco

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! [[PyPy]]

| [[Python (programming language)|Python]]

| [[Self-hosting (compilers)|Self-hosting]] implementation of Python, next generation of [[Psyco]]

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

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|-

! [[Silverlight]]

| [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]], [[Visual Basic (.NET)|VB.NET]]

| A Micro-version of Microsoft [[.NET Framework]] to let applications run sandboxed inside browser

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| C++

| 7MB (initiallyfirst releasedrelease)

|-

! [[ScummVM]]

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! [[Squeak]]

| Squeak [[Smalltalk]]

| [[Self-hosting (compilers)|Self hosting]] implementation of Squeak virtual machine. Rich multi-media support.

| {{yes}}

| {{yes|Cog & Exupery}}

| Smalltalk/Slang

| 110k Smalltalk, ~300K C

|-

![[SWI-Prolog]]

|Prolog: [[SWI-Prolog]], [[YAP (Prolog)|YAP]]

|

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

| C, SWI-Prolog

|

|-

! [[TraceMonkey]]

| JavaScript

| Based on [[Tamarin (JavaScript enginesoftware)|Tamarin]]

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

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==See also==

{{div col}}

* [[Application virtualization]]

* [[Language binding]]

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* [[Application binary interface]] (ABI)

* [[Comparison of platform virtualization software]]

* [[Comparison of Java virtual machines]]

* [[List of Java virtual machines]]

* [[List of ECMAScript engines]]

* [[List of application servers]]

* [[WebAssembly]]

{{div col end}}

==References==