![]() In most courses that teach Java as a programming language only the first part of this cycle is presented to the students, while the details about the behind-the-scenes behaviour of translated program inside the JVM are omitted. In order to be able to write efficient and reliable Java programs, it is very important to understand the whole life cycle of a program, which encompasses writing Java programs, translating from Java to bytecode and executing prepared byte-code in Java Virtual Machine environment. From an educational point of view Java Virtual Machine can be considered as a software emulation of a powerful hardware machine and as such a great tool to present the challenges and the solutions in the computer building process. The logic that is used in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is similar to the logic that it is used on a typical computer at the hardware level, that is, executing the bytecode on the Java Virtual Machine is similar to executing a machine code on a processor except that Java Virtual Machine has a great advantage in that it controls the programs on-the-fly and it can select which operations will be executed on the hosting hardware. Its most significant pedagogical strength is in the fact that Java programs are executed in a virtual environment (inside Java Virtual Machine ) and are therefore protected and controlled. Aside from the practical usage in industry, Java possesses several properties that makes it interesting from an educational point of view. Considering these facts it is not surprising that Java has became a very popular programming language in the industrial environment. Its popularity reflects in several different-purpose programming language indices which place Java at the very top of the scoreboard. Java is a modern, powerful, robust, secure and frequently used programming language. After presenting some information about class files and about the internal structure and operation of the Java Virtual Machine we demonstrate the usage of public domain programs that could be used in the educational process to put these theoretical concepts into practice. In this paper, we present some behind-the-scene details about the Java Virtual Machine and we show how these details could be used in the educational process to demonstrate the differences and to emphasise the advantages of the dynamic programming approach when compared to the static one. Knowing the detailed differences between the two types of languages and execution environments is a part of the holistic education of a computer engineer. ![]() The fact that Java programs are executed in a controlled environment has several important implications that define the nature of the language and makes it different from the traditional C-like languages. Java is not only a modern, powerful, and frequently used programming language, but together with Java Virtual Machine it represents a novel dynamic approach of writing and executing computer programs. ![]()
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