What are the differences between decompiling and disassembling a .class file?

Created May 4, 2012

John Mitchell

Basically, the Java byte codes in .class files are the "assembly language" of the Java Virtual Machine. Disassembling transforms the .class file contents from binary into a direct, textual representation of the bytecodes (i.e., JVM "assembly language"). Decompiling transforms the .class file contents into a Java source code textual representation (i.e., a .java file).