Why do we need other JVM languages

Question

I see here that there are a load of languages aside from Java that run on the JVM. I\'m a bit confused about the whole concept of other languages running in the JVM. So:

Answer 1

You need other languages on the JVM for the same reason you need multiple programming languages in general: Different languages are better as solving different problems ... static typing vs. dynamic typing, strict vs. lazy ... Declarative, Imperative, Object Oriented ... etc.

In general, writing a "compiler" for another language to run on the JVM (or on the .Net CLR) is essentially a matter of compiling that language into java bytecode (or in the case of .Net, IL) instead of to assembly/machine language.

That said, a lot of the extra languages that are being written for JVM aren't compiled, but rather interpreted scripting languages...