Portability Question !

[eejay]

Visual C++ gave the ability to compile and link my code to an .exe that I
could put on a floppy a take to a friends house and run. Is this possible
with Java?

Thanks in advance,

eejay

[Ako]

"eejay" <enickols@midsouth.rr.com> wrote:
>
>Visual C++ gave the ability to compile and link my code to an .exe that
I
>could put on a floppy a take to a friends house and run. Is this possible
>with Java?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>eejay

Yes and no, the reason for this is C++ and Java have different philosophies.
You will not be able to produce an executable file from java classes using
JDK or even IDEs, but there is a tool called J2EXE which does exactly this
for you.
The reason you cant make a .exe file from java as easily as with C++ is C++
compilers produce executable code which can run directly on hardware (ah
you might say what a brilliant idea! but this severely limits the cross-platform
portability, i.e. a program written and complied on a windows platform will
not run on a Unix box). On the other hand Java is meant to be a platform
independent and to achieve this a java complier produces a bytecode file
from the compiled file instead of and executable file. Then this bytecode
can be interpreted on any platform and give you the same result (at least
in theory).

Ako