Re: Classpath build process and VM-specific issues

[Andrew Haley]

Andrew Haley writes:
 > Michael Koch writes:
 >  > >
 >  > > Uh, I don't understand what you mean, sorry.  Why is a Java reference
 >  > > the same size as a native pointer?  Perhaps I misunderstood you.
 >  > 
 >  > AFAIK a java refernce is a pointer and this pointer can point 
 >  > everywhere. Right ?
 > 
 > No, not at all.  A java reference is simply a handle by which an
 > object may be found.  It might well be a hash code, or a table index.

Or -- and this is by no means unlikely -- you might have a 32-bit
addressable heap on a 64-bit system.  This would be a pretty good
implementation strategy on some systems.

Andrew.