OpenJDK community has a new project, Multi-Language VM (or just mlvm). It is announced by John Rose, from Sun, on the announcement list. The focus of the project will be to prototype JVM features beneficial for dynamic languages and remove “pain points” that current dynamic language developers have with standard JVM.
Here’s the snippet from the announcement:
This project will be open for prototyping
JVM features aimed at efficiently supporting
languages other than Java.The emphasis will be on completing the existing
bytecode and execution architecture with general
purpose extensions, as opposed to a new feature
for just one language, or adjoining an unrelated
new execution model.The emphasis will also be on work which removes
“pain points” already observed by implementors
of successful or influential languages, as opposed
to more speculative work on unproven features or
niche languages.
It is definitely a step in the right direction for making Java a true multi-language development platform.