The core of Java(tm) technology, the Java virtual machine is an abstract computing machine that enables the Java(tm) platform to host applications on any computer or operating system without rewriting or recompiling. Anyone interested in designing a language or writing a compiler for the Java virtual machine must have an in-depth understanding of its binary class format and instruction set. If you are programming with the Java programming language, knowledge of the Java virtual machine will give you valuable insight into the Java platform's security capabilities and cross-platform portability. It will increase your understanding of the Java programming language, enabling you to improve the security and performance of your programs. The author employs a tutorial approach that provides a detailed look into the central workings of the technology and teaches the reader how to write real programs for the Java virtual machine. He describes methods to becoming a better programmer through an advanced understanding of the Java virtual machine and Java technology. Programming for the Java Virtual Machine offers comprehensive coverage of all the major elements of the Java virtual machine-classes and objects, control instructions, debugging, class loaders, compiling the Java programming language, performance issues, security, and threads and synchronization. The book provides an introduction to the Java(tm) Virtual Machine Specification (JVMS), with a collection of topics that help programmers understand the Java virtual machine and the JVMS better. In addition, the book features implementations of Prolog and Scheme, a language that runs on top of the Java virtual machine, generating Java virtual machine code as it runs and using a Java virtual machine class loader to load the generated code into the system. You will find detailed information on such topics as: x The Java virtual machine verification algorithm x How Java virtual machine security works, and what it can and can't do x Using class loaders to incorporate code and dynamically generated code from the Internet, the Java(tm) Foundation Classes, database queries, and other languages x The mechanics of compiling the Java programming language for the Java virtual machine x Implementing other languages using the Java virtual machine, including Scheme, Prolog, Sather, Eiffel, and regular expressions Numerous examples illustrate techniques and concepts, and exercises with solutions help you gain practical experience.

A tutorial explaining how to write real programs for the Java virtual machine, the abstract computing machine that enables the Java platform to host applications on any computer or operating system without rewriting or recompiling. Assumes a previous working knowledge of Java. The disk contains libraries and programs in Java, source code, sample compilers, examples, and other material.
Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Preface 1 Introduction to the Java Virtual Machine 1.1 Java Virtual Machine and Java 1.2 What Is the Java Virtual Machine? 1.2.1 Instruction Set 1.2.2 class File Format 1.2.3 Verification 1.3 Java Platform 1.4 Organization of the Java Virtual Machine 1.4.1 Class Area 1.4.2 Java Stack 1.4.3 Heap 1.4.4 Native Method Stacks 1.4.5 Example 1.5 Garbage Collection 1.5.1 Finalization 1.5.2 Timing of Garbage Collection 1.6 JVM Implementations 1.7 Versions of the Virtual Machine 1.8 Future of the Java Virtual Machine 2 Oolong 2.1 Hello, World 2.1.1 .class and .super Directives 2.1.2 main Method 2.1.3 Instructions 2.2 Structure of an Oolong Program 2.3 Defining the Class 2.4 Superclasses 2.5 Declaring Fields 2.6 Declaring Methods 2.7 Interfaces 3 Writing Methods 3.1 Some Definitions 3.2 Types 3.2.1 Numeric Types 3.2.2 Object Types 3.2.3 Type returnAddress 3.3 Mnemonic Naming Conventions 3.4 Testing Code Examples 3.5 Returns 3.6 Constants 3.6.1 General Constants 3.6.2 Small Constants and null 3.7 Local Variables 3.7.1 Initializing Variables 3.7.2 Local Variables as Method Arguments 3.8 Math 3.8.1 Arithmetic Operations 3.8.2 Nonnumbers and Infinity 3.8.3 Bitwise Operations 3.8.4 Floating-Point Arithmetic and strictfp 3.9 Type Conversions 3.9.1 Conversion Example 3.9.2 Widening and Narrowing 3.10 Stack Manipulations 3.11 Arrays of Numbers 3.12 Just Biding Your Time 4 Classes and Objects 4.1 What Is an Object? 4.1.1 Objects and References 4.1.2 Class Names 4.1.3 Packages 4.2 Creating Objects 4.3 Constructors 4.4 Using Fields 4.4.1 Types and getfield 4.4.2 Inheriting Fields 4.4.3 Changing Field Values 4.5 Invoking Methods on Objects 4.5.1 Virtual Invocation 4.5.2 Method Inheritance and Overriding 4.5.3 Overloading and Method Matching 4.5.4 Invoking a Method Directly 4.5.5 invokespecial and super 4.6 Casting 4.7 Casting, Fields, Methods, and Java 4.8 Returning Objects 4.9 Interfaces 4.10 Static Fields and Methods 4.11 Class Initialization 4.12 Arrays 4.12.1 Arrays of Reference 4.12.2 Multidimensional Arrays 4.12.3 Length of Arrays 5 Control Instructions 5.1 Comparing Integers 5.2 Comparing References 5.3 Other Comparisons 5.4 Switches 5.5 Subroutines 5.6 Exceptions 5.6.1 Multiple Exception Handlers 5.6.2 .throws Directive 5.6.3 Other Ways to Throw Exceptions 5.7 A Gentler Way of Checking Type 6 Verification Process 6.1 How the Verification Algorithm Works 6.2 Is It a Structurally Valid class File? 6.3 Are All Constant References Correct? 6.5 Will Each Instruction Always Find a Correctly Formed Stack and Local Variable Array? 6.5.1 Example 1: Hello, World 6.5.2 Example 2: gotos and ifs 6.5.3 Example 3: Code That Doesn't Verify 6.5.4 Example 4: Dealing with Subclasses 6.5.5 Algorithm 6.6 Do External References Check Out? 6.7 Java Language and Verification Algorithm 6.7.1 Fooling the Virtual Machine with a Java Compiler 6.7.2 Other Languages and the Verification Algorithm 6.8 Other Safety Requirements 6.9 Checking Verification 7 Debugging 7.1 Debugging Directives in Oolong 7.1.1 .source Directive and .line Directives 7.1.2 .var Directive 7.2 Debugging Oolong Programs 7.3 Runtime Tracing 8 Class Loaders 8.1 How Classes Are Loaded 8.1.1 Loading 8.1.2 Linking 8.2 Loading Classes without a Class Loader 8.3 Making Your Own Class Loader 8.3.1 Caching Classes 8.3.2 Examples 8.4 Working with Class Objects 8.5 Reflection 9 Inside a Java class File 9.1 class File Header 9.2 Constant Pool 9.2.1 UTF8 Entries 9.2.2 Constant Entries 9.2.3 Field, Method, and Class Entries 9.3 Class Information 9.4 Fields and Methods 9.5 Class Attributes 9.6 Other Attributes 9.6.1 ConstantValue Attribute 9.6.2 Exceptions Attribute 9.6.3 InnerClasses Attribute 10 Compiling Java 10.1 Expressions and Statements 10.2 Expression Types 10.2.1 Numeric Types 10.2.2 Object Types 10.2.3 Expression Result Types 10.2.4 Compile-Time Types and Type Restrictions 10.2.5 Type Safety and Verifiability 10.3 Compiling Statements and Expressions 10.4 Local Variable Declarations 10.5 Fields and Variables 10.5.1 Abbreviations 10.5.2 Other Assignments 10.5.3 Assignments as Expressions 10.5.4 Type-Checking in Assignments 10.6 Creating New Objects 10.7 Class Name Abbreviations 10.8 Arithmetic Expressions 10.8.1 Numeric Coercions 10.8.2 Casting Numeric Values 10.8.3 ~ Operator 10.9 Method Calls 10.9.1 Virtual Method Calls 10.9.2 Static Method Calls 10.9.3 Example of Method Calls 10.9.4 Overriding 10.9.5 Overloading 10.9.6 Interfaces 10.10 Expressions as Statements 10.11 Ifs and Booleans 10.11.1 Boolean Values 10.11.2 if Statements 10.11.3 Comparisons 10.11.4 Floating-Point Comparisons and NaN 10.11.5 Integer Comparisons 10.11.6 References and Object Equality 10.11.7 Boolean Operators 10.12 Other Control Structures 10.12.1 Loops 10.12.2 Compiling Control Constructs 10.12.3 Compound Statements and Verification 10.13 Returns 10.14 Field Declarations 10.15 Method Declarations 10.16 Constructors 10.16.1 Using Other Constructors in the Same Class 10.16.2 Default Constructors 10.16.3 Field Initializers and the Constructor 10.17 Conclusion 11 Compiling Other Languages 11.1 Java Version 1.1 11.1.1 Class Literals 11.1.2 Inner Classes 11.1.3 Variable Scoping with Inner Classes 11.2 Regular Expressions 11.3 Iterators 11.3.1 Iterators in Sather 11.3.2 Implementing Iterators 11.3.3 Iterators with Arguments 11.3.4 Using Iterators 11.4 Parameterized Types 11.4.1 Implementing Parameterized Types with a Generic Class 11.4.2 Implementing Parameterized Types as Templates 11.5 Multiple Inheritance 11.5.1 Interfaces for Multiple Inheritance 11.5.2 Implementing the Interfaces 11.5.3 Fields 11.6 Conclusion 12 Implementing Scheme 12.1 Scheme Concepts 12.2 Compiling Scheme into Bytecodes 12.3 Compiling Lambda Expressions 12.4 Example 12.5 Scheme Library 12.6 Optimizing Scheme 12.6.1 Static Scoping 12.6.2 Using Local Variables 12.6.3 Inlining 12.6.4 Tail Recursion 12.6.5 Using Type Information 13 Implementing Prolog 13.1 Introduction to Prolog 13.1.1 Asking Questions 13.1.2 Binding Patterns 13.1.3 Implications 13.1.4 Binding Patterns and Implications 13.1.5 Facts as Rules 13.1.6 More About Unification 13.2 Implementation Basics 13.3 Unification 13.3.1 Unification Algorithm 13.3.2 Managing Bindings 13.4 Rules as Programs 13.4.1 inside 13.4.2 within 13.4.3 yield and Backtracking 13.5 Implementing Rules 13.5.1 Implementing within 13.5.2 Implementing Conjunctions 13.5.3 Constructing within 13.6 Compiling Facts 13.7 Case Study 14 Performance 14.1 Fast Virtual Machines 14.1.1 Garbage Collection Performance 14.1.2 Implementing References 14.2 Bytecode Optimization Techniques 14.2.1 Warning 14.2.2 Constant Propagation 14.2.3 Strength Reduction 14.2.4 Loop Unrolling 14.2.5 Peephole Optimization 14.3 Inlining 14.3.1 Inlining Fields 14.3.2 Separate Compilation 15 Security and the Virtual Machine 15.1 Java platform and Need for Security 15.2 Security Promises of the JVM 15.3 Security Architecture and Security Policy 15.3.1 Example 15.3.2 Basic Applet Security Policy 15.3.3 More Sophisticated Policies 15.4 Some Potential Attacks 15.4.1 Implementation Details 15.4.2 Protecting the Security Manager 15.4.3 Bypassing Java Security 15.4.4 Using Unconstructed Objects 15.4.5 Invalid Casts 15.4.6 Changing the Class of a Reference 15.4.7 Reading Uninitialized Fields 15.4.8 Array Bounds Checks 15.4.9 Catching Exceptions 15.4.10 Hidden Code 15.5 Conclusion 16 Threads and Synchronization 16.1 Threads 16.1.1 Example: Multithreaded Web Server 16.1.2 Exceptions and Threads 16.2 Sharing State Between Threads 16.2.1 Need for Synchronization 16.2.2 Exception: longs and doubles 16.3 Monitors and Object Locks 16.3.1 Synchronization in Java 16.3.2 Synchronized Methods 16.4 Scheduling 16.4.1 Surrendering Control of the CPU 16.4.2 Waiting for Another Thread 16.5 Conclusion A Tables A.1 Instructions by Opcode A.2 Instructions Alphabetically A.3 Instructions by Category A.3.1 Arithmetic A.3.2 Array A.3.3 Constant A.3.4 Control A.3.5 Data Type Conversion A.3.6 Object A.3.7 Stack Manipulation A.3.8 Synchronization A.3.9 Variable B Oolong Reference B.1 Using the Oolong Assembler B.2 Gnoloo B.3 DumpClass B.4 Oolong Language B.4.1 Comments B.4.2 .source B.4.3 .class B.4.4 .interface B.4.5 .end class B.4.6 .super B.4.7 .implements B.4.8 .field B.4.9 .method B.4.10 .limit locals B.4.11 .limit stack B.4.12 .line B.4.13 .var B.4.14 .throws B.4.15 .catch B.4.16 .end method B.5 Instructions B.5.1 Instructions with No Arguments B.5.2 Integers B.5.3 Labels B.5.4 Classes B.5.5 Fields and Methods B.5.6 invokeinterface B.5.7 multianewarray B.5.8 ldc, ldc_w, and ldc2_w B.5.9 newarray B.5.10 tableswitch B.5.11 lookupswitch C Answers to Selected Exercises Further Readings Java and the JVM Newsgroup Other Languages Compilers Index: