catflap.org Online Dictionary Query

  dynamic translation
       
           A virtual machine implementation approach,
          used to speed up execution of byte-code programs.  To
          execute a program unit such as a method or a function, the
          virtual machine compiles its bytecodes into (hardware) machine
          code.  The translated code is also placed in a cache, so that
          next time that unit's machine code can be executed
          immediately, without repeating the translation.
       
          This technique was pioneered by the commercial Smalltalk
          implementation currently known as VisualWorks, in the early
          1980s.  Currently it is also used by some implementations of
          the Java Virtual Machine under the name JIT (Just In Time
          compilation).
       
          [Peter L. Deutsch and Alan Schiffman. "Efficient
          Implementation of the Smalltalk-80 System", 11th Annual
          Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, Jan 1984,
          pp. 297-302].
       
          (2002-04-15)