Java vs. C/C++ binary size comparison

Question

I am looking for a paper or study that gives a comparison of the byte-code size of various Java and C++ programs. Specifically, I am trying to compare native code implementations for different machine arcithectures vs. doing the same thing in a Java program. I am not interested in speed comparisons.

Answer 1

Java class files tend to be very very very very small, however the JVM must be implemented in C, and heavyweight components rely upon the underlying operating system's C implementations of such visual components. Class files are more modular than Executables, and simply don't have to include entire gigantic libraries of information. You can think of everything as being more like a .DLL than compiling all of the same functionality directly into the file. The speed tends to rely on the Virtual machine you're using, just as C and C++ programs tend to rely on what they were compiled for, and what libraries they are using to display their GUI. There are many studies about the speed of java byte code in relation to native C/C++ code. However, you should realize that the java compiler does a lot of automagical bounds checking, and prevents a great deal of unsafe optimizations. You can find many native compilers, and many virtual machines that will allow you to turn off these checks, and then you can fairly compare the speed of byte code with that of native code.
-Jason Thomas.