Octave language compilation into Java bytecode

[Igor V. Burago]

Dear John Eaton, dear members of the maintainers mailing list,

I am a third-year student of Far Eastern National University in
Vladivostok, Russia. My major is Applied Mathematics (System
Programming).

I have an interest in high-level computational languages such as
MATLAB-language. I searched the Internet for opensource languages of
this kind which both would be efficient in execution and flexible in
use. It looks like Octave is one of the most long-range computer
languages in the field of computations because it's very similar to
popular MATLAB-language and it has strong library of built-in
functions and scripts.

Unfortunately, still there is no way to compile Octave programs for
faster execution that is very important sometimes. It seems to me that
Java bytecode might be a good solution for this problem. Java bytecode
is highly portable, fast, it has well optimized garbage collection
and, in addition, it enables effective integration of mathematical
computations with popular programming languages.

So I've decided to start developing a compiler of Octave language into
Java bytecode as my university project.

In this connection I would wish to get answers to the following questions.
1) What is your attitude to this project? How could it be made in a
rational way that would be helpful for community?
2) Is there a complete description of Octave language itself (not a
user manual)?
3) Would it be useful to integrate my work into GNU/Octave developing?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
-- 
Igor V. Burago