Bytecode

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A form of compiled code that serves as an intermediary representation executed by a virtual machine rather than directly by hardware, facilitating program portability across different systems
2. This is an executable instruction set produced by compilers designed to be interpreted by a virtual machine, allowing applications to run consistently on any compatible environment
3. An intermediate code generated by a compiler, intended for execution on a virtual machine, which enhances the compatibility of software across various computing systems

Etymology: "Bytecode" is a plain compound of "byte" and "code," and its history is largely a matter of when computing needed a name for the thing it describes. "Byte" itself is a deliberate coinage: it was chosen as a respelling of "bite," a small unit of computer memory, intended to avoid confusion with "bit." "Code" comes from Latin "codex," a block of wooden tablets and later a bound book, which passed through Old French into English. Joined together, the two words name a program of short numerical instructions, each typically one byte long, rather than human-readable source text. The sense is therefore almost entirely a product of the 20th-century computing era, and the word describes a format rather than anything older. Its meaning stays literal: a sequence of codes, each handled as a byte, that a virtual machine reads and carries out one step at a time.

Synonyms: intermediate code, machine code, compiled code, virtual machine code, object code