The Java Virtual Machine Specification: Java SE

Preface to the Java SE 8 Edition xv Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 A Bit of History 1 1.2 The Java Virtual Machine 2 1.3 Organization of the Specification 3 1.4 Notation 4 1.5 Feedback 4 Chapter 2: The Structure of the Java Virtual Machine 5 2.1 The class File Format 5 2.2 Data Types 6 2.3 Primitive Types and Values 6 2.4 Reference Types and Values 11 2.5 Run-Time Data Areas 11 2.6 Frames 15 2.7 Representation of Objects 19 2.8 Floating-Point Arithmetic 19 2.9 Special Methods 22 2.10 Exceptions 23 2.11 Instruction Set Summary 25 2.12 Class Libraries 37 2.13 Public Design, Private Implementation 37 Chapter 3: Compiling for the Java Virtual Machine 39 3.1 Format of Examples 39 3.2 Use of Constants, Local Variables, and Control Constructs 40 3.3 Arithmetic 45 3.4 Accessing the Run-Time Constant Pool 46 3.5 More Control Examples 47 3.6 Receiving Arguments 50 3.7 Invoking Methods 51 3.8 Working with Class Instances 53 3.9 Arrays 55 3.10 Compiling Switches 57 3.11 Operations on the Operand Stack 59 3.12 Throwing and Handling Exceptions 60 3.13 Compiling finally 63 3.14 Synchronization 66 3.15 Annotations 67 Chapter 4: The class File Format 69 4.1 The ClassFile Structure 70 4.2 The Internal Form of Names 74 4.3 Descriptors 75 4.4 The Constant Pool 78 4.5 Fields 90 4.6 Methods 92 4.7 Attributes 95 4.8 Format Checking 158 4.9 Constraints on Java Virtual Machine Code 159 4.10 Verification of class Files 166 4.11 Limitations of the Java Virtual Machine 327 Chapter 5: Loading, Linking, and Initializing 329 5.1 The Run-Time Constant Pool 329 5.2 Java Virtual Machine Startup 332 5.3 Creation and Loading 332 5.4 Linking 339 5.5 Initialization 352 5.6 Binding Native Method Implementations 355 5.7 Java Virtual Machine Exit 355 Chapter 6: The Java Virtual Machine Instruction Set 357 6.1 Assumptions: The Meaning of "Must" 357 6.2 Reserved Opcodes 358 6.3 Virtual Machine Errors 358 6.4 Format of Instruction Descriptions 359 6.5 Instructions 362 Chapter 7: Opcode Mnemonics by Opcode 559

Tim Lindholm is a former Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems. He was a contributor to the Java programming language and the senior architect of the Java Virtual Machine, later working on Java for mobile devices. Prior to Sun, he worked on virtual machines and runtime systems for Prolog at Argonne National Laboratory and Quintus. He holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Carleton College. Frank Yellin is a former Staff Engineer at Sun Microsystems. He was an original member of the Java project and spent a decade working on runtime systems for interpreted and compiled languages. Prior to Sun, he worked on the compilation of Common Lisp at Lucid. He holds an A.B. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard and an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford. Gilad Bracha is the creator of the Newspeak programming language and a former Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems. Prior to Sun, he worked on Strongtalk, the Animorphic Smalltalk System. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Utah. Alex Buckley is the Specification Lead for the Java programming language and the Java Virtual Machine at Oracle. He holds a Ph.D. in Computing from Imperial College London.