Method and Apparatus for Referencing a Constant Pool in a Java Virtual Machine

A data processing system for referencing a constant pool, the data processing system comprising:

• a bus;
• a communications unit connected to the bus;
• a storage device connected to the bus, wherein the storage device includes computer usable program code;
• and
• a processor unit connected to the bus, wherein the processor unit executes the computer usable program code to determine whether a bytecode references the constant pool, responsive to the bytecode referencing the constant pool, to identify a relative offset to the constant pool for the bytecode using a size of each method pointer and a number of method pointers present between a current method pointer for the bytecode and a beginning of the constant pool, wherein the relative offset is a number of slots separating the bytecode and the constant pool, and to replace the bytecode with a new bytecode containing the relative offset, wherein the relative offset is used to reference the constant pool.

A computer program product stored in a recordable-type medium for referencing a constant pool, the computer program product comprising:

• first instructions for determining whether a bytecode references the constant pool;
• second instructions, responsive to the bytecode referencing the constant pool, for identifying a relative offset to the constant pool for the bytecode using a size of each method pointer and a number of method pointers present between a current method pointer for the bytecode and a beginning of the constant pool, wherein the relative offset is a number of slots separating the bytecode and the constant pool;
• and
• third instructions for replacing the bytecode with a new bytecode containing the relative offset, wherein the relative offset is used to reference the constant pool.