Kotlin Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide, First Edition

For the More Curious: Targeting the JVM

The JVM is a piece of software that knows how to execute a set of instructions, called bytecode. “Targeting the JVM” means compiling, or translating, your Kotlin source code into Java bytecode, with the intention of running that bytecode on the JVM (Figure 1.17).

Figure 1.17  Compilation and execution flow

Each platform, such as Windows or macOS, has its own instruction set. The JVM acts as a bridge between the bytecode and the different hardware and software environments the JVM runs on, reading a piece of bytecode and calling the corresponding platform-specific instruction(s) that ...