[Haskell-cafe] Re: Wikipedia on first-class object

On 2007-12-28, ChrisK wrote:

Other note: An imperative language, such as C++ or Java, specified the binary output of any instance of the compiler. Class methods will have very specific names and addresses. In C++ you can even get the member-function pointer values and examine the byte offsets in the object. In Java one gets a very specific layout of bytecode in a class file.

These are specified by the ABI, not the language, in most cases. Java happens to specify this, but C and C++ do not. Almost all platforms define a C ABI.

"Haskell" is a declarative language. It does not specify anything about the implementation's internals.

Neither do most languages. -- Aaron Denney -><-