Introduction

Native code and bytecode are two different forms of machine language that are used to execute programs on a computer.

What is Native Code?

Native code is machine code that is directly executed by the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer. It is written in the assembly language of the specific CPU architecture and is specific to that architecture. Because native code is specific to a particular architecture, it can be directly executed by the CPU without the need for any additional translation or interpretation.

What is Bytecode?

Bytecode, on the other hand, is a intermediate representation of a program that is not directly executable by the CPU. It is a machine-independent form of code that is generated by a compiler or interpreter from the source code of a program. Bytecode can be executed by a virtual machine, which is a software program that emulates the behavior of a physical CPU.

Advantages of Bytecode

One of the main advantages of bytecode is that it is portable, meaning that it can be run on any machine with a virtual machine installed, regardless of the underlying hardware architecture. This allows bytecode to be used as a platform-independent way of distributing programs.

Conclusion tl;dr:

In summary, native code is machine code that is specific to a particular CPU architecture and can be directly executed by the CPU, while bytecode is a portable, intermediate representation of a program that is executed by a virtual machine.