Pro Android Apps Performance Optimization

How Android Executes Your Code

While Android developers use Java, the Android platform does not include a Java Virtual Machine (VM) for executing code. Instead, applications are compiled into Dalvik bytecode, and Android uses its Dalvik VM to execute it. The Java code is still compiled into Java bytecode, but this Java bytecode is then compiled into Dalvik bytecode by the dex compiler, dx (an SDK tool). Ultimately, your application will contain only the Dalvik bytecode, not the Java bytecode.

For example, an implementation of a method that computes the n^th term of the Fibonacci series is shown in Listing 1–1 together with the class definition. The Fibonacci series is defined as follows:

F0 = 0 F1 = 1 Fn = Fn-2 + Fn-1 for n greater than 1