javac (pronounced "java-see") is the primary

Java compiler A Java compiler is a compiler for the programming language Java. The most common form of output from a Java compiler is Java class files containing platform-neutral Java bytecode, but there are also compilers that output optimized native machine ...

included in the

Java Development Kit The Java Development Kit (JDK) is a distribution of Java Technology by Oracle Corporation. It implements the Java Language Specification (JLS) and the Java Virtual Machine Specification (JVMS) and provides the Standard Edition (SE) of the Java ...

(JDK) from

Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells da ...

Martin Odersky Martin Odersky (born 5 September 1958) is a German computer scientist and professor of programming methods at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. He specializes in code analysis and programming languages. He designe ...

implemented the GJ compiler, and his implementation became the basis for javac. The compiler accepts source code conforming to the Java language specification (JLS) and produces

Java bytecode In computing, Java bytecode is the bytecode-structured instruction set of the Java virtual machine (JVM), a virtual machine that enables a computer to run programs written in the Java programming language and several other programming langua ...

conforming to the Java Virtual Machine Specification (JVMS). javac is itself written in Java. The compiler can also be invoked programmatically.

History

On 13 November 2006, Sun's HotSpot Java virtual machine (JVM) and

(JDK) were made available under the

GPL The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general u ...

license. Since version 0.95,

GNU Classpath GNU Classpath is a free software implementation of the standard class library for the Java programming language. Most classes from J2SE 1.4 and 5.0 are implemented. Classpath can thus be used to run Java-based applications. GNU Classpath is a p ...

, a free implementation of the

Java Class Library The Java Class Library (JCL) is a set of dynamically loadable libraries that Java Virtual Machine (JVM) languages can call at run time. Because the Java Platform is not dependent on a specific operating system, applications cannot rely on any of ...

, supports compiling and running javac using the Classpath runtime —

GNU Interpreter for Java The GNU Compiler for Java (GCJ) is a free compiler for the Java programming language. It was part of the GNU Compiler Collection for over ten years but as of 2017 it is no longer maintained and will not be part of future releases. GCJ compiles ...

(GIJ) — and compiler —

GNU Compiler for Java The GNU Compiler for Java (GCJ) is a free compiler for the Java programming language. It was part of the GNU Compiler Collection for over ten years but as of 2017 it is no longer maintained and will not be part of future releases. GCJ compiles ...

(GCJ) — and also allows one to compile the

class library, tools and examples with javac itself. "This release supports compiling and running the GPL OpenJDK javac compiler ..

References

{{Reflist

External links

The Compiler Group

JSR 199
Java Compiler API

Java Specification Request The Java Community Process (JCP), established in 1998, is a formalized mechanism that allows interested parties to develop standard technical specifications for Java technology. Anyone can become a JCP Member by filling a form available at thJCP w ...

for invoking the Java compiler from a Java program
Mercurial repository

Java compilers

History

See also

References

External links