HN Explorer

Ask HN: What's a runtime?

5 points by aryamaan ↗ HN
Is it another process running which my program deals with or is it like a library which has some specific responsibilities? In that case, what are those responsibilities?

This wasn't of much use https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3900549/what-is-runtime

2 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 16.9 ms ] thread
panta
Not to be confused with the standard library, it's a piece of software necessary to do the very initial setup operations to make your program run (for example setup the stack, etc.). It's platform-, OS- and compiler- dependent. It's usually included in the final executable by the linker.
PaulHoule
Not just initial setup, but also ongoing services.

For instance, a language like Java has the garbage collector, JIT, etc. as part of the runtime.