| C/C++ programming in a heterogeneous network environment requires use and compatibility across several vendor platforms and the corresponding compilers. This problem is solved in Java by designing platform-independent binary representation called Java bytecode (or opcode). |
| Java compiler (written in Java and platform-independent) reads Java source and generates Java bytecode. These bytecodes are shipped to client machines upon browser requests. |
| Each client machine must run Java interpreter which performs runtime execution of Java bytecodes. Java interpreter is written in POSIX compliant ANSI C and needs to be ported to and conventionally compiled (once) on each individual platform. |
| Once the interpreter is ported, application developers don't need to worry at all about platform specificity and differences between native compilers. |