Hacker News Reader

This is a little bit off. The only architecture supported by Java is the JVM. It is a fictional CPU architecture with predefined characteristics, such as a memory model. The implementation of a JVM is a mapping from a real CPU to the J VM's requirements. So no, JVM doesn't mean 'any architecture', it means 'JVM'. It only applies to OSes where a JVM is available.

View on HN

That's a bit of a nitpick.

The developer no longer cares what architecture the program will run on, it just works.

You compile to bytecode, and stop caring. The JVM becomes your only target architecture, regardless of what actual architecture the system has.

That's unlike C or pretty much any (all?) other compiled languages around in the early 90's when Java was still Oak and Gosling was just getting started.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com