Item — HN Reader

> First of all, Java isn't a platform.

You are being facetious. I mean, do you actually believe that the JVM exists in a context where Java does not exist? What does the J in JVM stand for?

> The JVM is a common target for both Java and Kotlin, where the two are intentionally interoperable (...)

Yes, in the sense that Java exists and Kotlin by design piggybacks on the JVM.

> The C → Rust migrations that happen a lot these days underline how differences in features isn't at all a problem (quite the opposite when there's new features), but that interoperability allowing partial work is by far the most important thing.

This analysis is very superficial and fails to identify any of the real world arguments to switch from C. For example, Microsoft outright strangled C by wasting many years refusing to support any standard beyond C89, in spite of being directly involved in it's drafts. This was a major contribution to address any of the pain points and DX shortcomings. Compare the evolution of C and C++ during that time period, and we see C++ going through the same path in the C++0x days to then recover spectacularly once C++11 got unstuck.

> You are being facetious. I mean, do you actually believe that the JVM exists in a context where Java does not exist? What does the J in JVM stand for?

Java runs on several things that are not the JVM. Android does not use JVM to run Java, and even Oracle is pushing something that is not the JVM.

At the same time, JVM runs many things that are not Java.

If you are somehow implying along the lines of JVM only got initially authored because Java, then that is nothing but a historical fact of little relevance from the early days of the language. If not even Oracle considers Java and JVM one thing - and by virtue of Graal they don't - then it simply isn't as such.

> This analysis is very superficial and fails to identify any of the real world arguments to switch from C

You misread - what you quoted was not an analysis of why the migrations happen. It was a parallel, underlining that migrations do happen in spite of obvious feature differences (and sometimes, because of such differences).