How does C become machine independent ?
C is very near to Asm and C code is first translated into asm before compiling and linking. So asm is involved.But many times asm is found to machine dependent(i.e it works on some machines and errs on others even from the same family of PCs like IBM family and x86 processors(x>=3)).How does then C become machine independent ?
Machine independence of C is that you compile the same source code in different machines and get different assembler code specific to that type of machine.
So your source code is the same. (Actually for very long programs, especially in low level ones, you may write code specific to the architecture, so it no longer becomes portable). Even in different compilers your code will behave differently if you use non-standard features.
Because of that I never consider C much portable. Java is simply much much much more machine independent than C.
The experimenter who does not know what he is looking for will not understand what he finds.
- Claude Bernard
