Interpreted

Hype

Java bytecodes are translated on the fly to native machine instructions (interpreted) and not stored anywhere. And since linking is a more incremental and lightweight process, the development process can be much more rapid and exploratory.

As a part of the bytecode stream, more compile-time information is carried over and available at runtime. This is what the linker's type checks are based on. It also makes programs more amenable to debugging.

--The Java Language, An Overview

Reality

This is absolutely true. In fact so much information is available that it's comparatively trivial to disassemble compiled Java programs and almost as easy to decompile them.

Bottom Line: A


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Copyright 1997 Elliotte Rusty Harold
elharo@sunsite.unc.edu
Last Modified Sunday, March 9, 1997