A Java compiler is a compiler for the Java programming language.
Some Java compilers output optimized machine code for a particular hardware/operating system combination, called a domain specific computer system. An example would be the now discontinued GNU Compiler for Java.
The most common form of output from a Java compiler is Java class files containing cross-platform intermediate representation (IR), called Java bytecode.
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 was specified in JSR 199.
See also
- List of Java Compilers
- javac, the standard Java compiler in Oracle's JDK
External links
- Sun's OpenJDK javac page
- Stephan Diehl, "A Formal Introduction to the Compilation of Java", Software - Practice and Experience, Vol. 28(3), pages 297-327, March 1998.
References
"GCJ - past, present, and future". Archived from the original on 2019-08-02. Retrieved 2021-09-24. https://lwn.net/Articles/130796/ ↩
"The Java Virtual Machine Specification, Java SE 8 Edition, Section 1.2". Archived from the original on 2021-09-24. Retrieved 2021-09-24. https://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jvms/se8/html/jvms-1.html#jvms-1.2 ↩
"JSR 199: JavaTM Compiler API". Archived from the original on 2021-09-24. Retrieved 2021-09-24. https://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=199 ↩