A Java compiler is a compiler for the Java programming language. The most common form of output from a Java compiler is Java class files containing platform-neutral Java bytecode. There exist also compilers emitting optimized native machine code for a particular hardware/operating system combination.
Most Java-to-bytecode compilers, Jikes being a well known exception, do virtually no optimization, leaving this until run time to be done by the JRE[citation needed].
The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) loads the class files and either interprets the bytecode or just-in-time compiles it to machine code and then possibly optimizes it using dynamic compilation.
A standard on how to interact with Java compilers programmatically was specified in JSR 199.
Major Java compilers
As of 2012, the following are major Java compilers:[citation needed]
- The Java Programming Language Compiler (javac), included in the Java Development Kit from Oracle Corporation, open-sourced since 13 November 2006.
- GNU Compiler for Java (GCJ), a part of the GNU Compiler Collection, which compiles C, Fortran, Pascal and other programming languages besides Java. It can also generate native code using the back-end of GCC.
- Eclipse Compiler for Java (ECJ), an open source incremental compiler used by the Eclipse project.
External links
- Sun's OpenJDK javac page
- JSR 199 Java Compiler API Java Specification Request for invoking the Java compiler from a Java program
- A Formal Introduction to the Compilation of Java, Stephan Diehl, "Software - Practice and Experience", Vol. 28(3), pages 297-327, March 1998.
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