Java compiler: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 13:55, 24 September 2021

Revision as of 23:16, 4 October 2021

Line 1:

{{Short description|Program compiler for Java programming language}}

A '''Java compiler''' is a [[compiler]] for the programming language [[Java (programming language)|Java]]. The most common form of output from a Java compiler is [[Java class file]]s containing platform-neutral [[Java bytecode]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Java Virtual Machine Specification, Java SE 8 Edition, Section 1.2|url=https://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jvms/se8/html/jvms-1.html#jvms-1.2|access-date=2021-09-24|language=en}}</ref>, but there are also compilers that output optimized [[Machine code|native machine code]] for a particular hardware/[[operating system]] combination, most notably the now discontinued [[GNU Compiler for Java]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=GCJ - past, present, and future|url=https://lwn.net/Articles/130796/|access-date=2021-09-24|language=en}}</ref>

Most Java-to-bytecode compilers do virtually no [[Optimization (computer science)|optimization]], leaving this until [[Run time (program lifecycle phase)|run time]] to be done by the [[Java virtual machine]] (JVM).{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}