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Comment by klibertp | Hacker News Reader

What 5 y.o. wouldn't understand an explanation as simple as this:

> This way it is easy to jump to a location in C code which handles next opcode. Just read a void* pointer and do a goto *p. This feature is an extension to C and C++ compilers. This type of VM loop is called direct-threaded dispatch virtual machine loop.

...I guess the author works with quite smart 5 years olds, right...

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I mean ELI5 is clearly hyperbolic, but explaining dispatch like "Just read a void* pointer and do a goto *p" is definitely 1st year of CS level. This wouldn't be valid for teaching actual VM implementation fundamentals.

Some may wish courses about compilers & VMs would be as easily (and naively) explained, but this style misses a lot of critical and complex details. Nobody likes complexity, but if it exists, it exists.

Most "1st year of CS" people do not know C or understand how pointers work, let alone an 'opcode'

C is not a mandatory subject in first year of CS where you live? At least it used to be where I live, pretty universally (although at that time our universities were in the middle of a Pascal-to-C transition, so as to speak).

I had Ada95 in my introductory classes, and today my alma mater uses Java, I think.

I would estimate many more programs use Java than C.

We still have C/C++ as a first year subject where I studied, with Java being a second year subject.

My alma mater had zero language courses. We were expected to learn enough of whatever languages were necessary for concepts covered in the course. Intro courses used Scheme and Java. C ended up being used in later courses after the intro ones, e.g. operating systems.

The United States? No, there are no mandatory subjects for majors.

My CS curriculum didn't have any "learn this language" classes, you were just expected to know the language that the class was taught in, with the exception of one of the classes that spent some time reviewing OCaml concepts.

Mostly it was C/C++ and Python for the scientific/numeric classes.

We started with a semester of ML (to make sure nobody has prior experience) followed a semester with some quick assembly, some quick C, and a lot of Java. After that you are just expected to know whatever language the course requires

I coded C++, virtual dispatch and knew what void *ptr can be used for at 10. With right incentives children can learn anything, not that it helps in a world of domination.

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