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Date:      Sun, 14 Feb 1999 20:30:46 -0800
From:      Eric Hodel <hodeleri@seattleu.edu>
To:        root@isis.dynip.com
Cc:        durang@u.washington.edu, freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Very Strange Question
Message-ID:  <36C7A2F6.841770E2@seattleu.edu>
References:  <199902150218.FAA04186@isis.dynip.com>

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About all that other stuff, I don't know.  I am only experienced with
Java and Basic/QBasic, and have no idea where they
started/branched/whatever.

> You are probably very close to the correct answer, but when was the
> concept of compiling into binary format developed, and why the hell
> there are so many binary formats, does this indicate that none of them
> is effecient enough, and a new UNIVERSAL binary format is needed, the
> kind of binary that runs on any architecutre, or any OS.

This is part of one of the goals of Java.  It runs on a virtual
machine (the Java VM) and the Java VM is written (in C for computers,
I suppose) to interpret the Java class file (I heard it called byte
code or something somewhere) into instruction the CPU can understand. 
The unfortunately, the extra layer of the VM to interpret the java
class (byte code?) to actual CPU instructions slightly slows the
execution of java applications.  A solution to this is a native java
CPU.  I've heard of some being proposed, but can't recall where/when. 
Java is supposed to be able to run on everything from your PII to your
clock radio, provided a VM has been written for it.  (I really don't
know much about the low level details, except generalities.)

-- 
Eric Hodel
hodeleri@seattleu.edu

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