Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Genmutant 4288 days ago
Almost any language is platform-agnostic if you don't use platform specific things like system calls.
2 comments

Most don't combine the two things that together give Java its big advantage, though:

1) Easily-distributable "mostly-compiled" bytecode form (JAR files).

2) Wide install base for the VM needed to run said bytecode.

Without #1 you need to recompile for each new platform, even when avoiding platform-specific calls, and without #2 the advantages of #1 can't be used without requiring your users to install other stuff just to run your software.

And almost any language, Java included, can be used in a platform-dependant way. Like Minecraft does. It depends on native code.