What the differences between classical compilation model (C, C++, etc.) and the Java compilation model?
What the differences between classical compilation model (C, C++, etc.) and the Java compilation
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What the differences between classical compilation model (C, C++, etc.) and the Java compilation model?
A proper answer to your question could take several hundred pages to answer, but I’ll try to sum it up in a few paragraphs.
Basically, the “classic compilation model” you refer to takes as input human-written source code and emits machine code, which can be loaded and run without further translation of the machine code. One ramification of this is that the resulting machine code can only be run on compatible hardware and can only be run within a compatible operating system.
The Java compilation model takes human-written source code as input and emits not machine code, but so-called “byte code“. Byte code cannot be directly executed on a machine. Instead, it needs to be translated once again by another compiler to machine code, or interpreted on-the-fly by a device that executes instructions on the machine that correspond to the instructions in the byte code. The latter device is often referred to as a Virtual Machine. One ramification of this model is that the byte code can be “run” on any platform that has either a byte code compiler or virtual machine written for it. This gives Java the appearance and effect of complete portability, where there is no such portability implied by the machine code emitted by a C++ compiler stack.