There was.  It&#x27;s Java.  I remember when it was first released and it promised the ability to &quot;write once, run anywhere&quot; but delivered via the Web to run as web applets.<p>And before <i>that</i> in the 80s, there was UCSD Pascal.  I know it was available for the Apple ][ (used it in high school) and the IBM PC (one of three operating systems available when IBM launched the IBM PC in August of 1981) and probably a few other platforms I&#x27;m blanking on.  A defined VM and &quot;executables&quot; could run on any platform running UCSD Pascal.<p>And even before <i>that</i>, IBM pioneered VMs for their own hardware, which is probably what inspired UCSD Pascal in the first place.