Java bytecode is standardized. So any JVM implementing the spec should be able to interpret the output of javac: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jvms/se7/

Java bytecode is standardized. So any JVM implementing the spec should be able to interpret the output of javac: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jvms/se7/html/jvms-6.html#jvms-6.2 http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jvms/se7/html/jvms-6.htm... Python bytecode on the other hand is not standardized: its bytecode is considered an implementation detail of CPython and can vary from version to version. Your example reinforces my point.