In article 
<Pine.LNX.4.30.0204262006200.27561-100000 / bigfun.whirlycott.com>,
 Pat Eyler <pate / eylerfamily.org> wrote:

> 3) possibly pave the way for moving ruby to other back-ends

This, I think, could be ne of the best benefits of Parrot.  Once Ruby 
can be compiled down to Parrot bytecode, as far as I can see, it stops 
being a matter of Ruby at all.  If PBC(Parrot Bytecode) can be 
translated into Java bytecode, or .NET's IL, then by having Ruby running 
on Parrot, we automatically get JVM and .NET compatibility.

The other great potential for Parrot, IMHO, lies with embedded 
platforms.  If Parrot can be run on something like a Palm, or PocketPC 
machine, there will no longer be a need for each(Perl, Python, Ruby, 
Tcl, etc.) language to have its own interpreter and run-time 
environment.  Just compile and assemble it to PBC, and that file and the 
Parrot VM are all you need.

Of course, this will also be of benefit to folks looking to embed one of 
those languages inside a compiled applcation of some sort.