Difference between Groovy Binary and Source release?

Question

I have been seeing the words binary and source release in many websites download sections.

What do they actually mean?

For example, I have seen this in Groovy download page.

My question is how they differ? Both tend to install Groovy, but what's the main difference?

Answer 1

The source release is the raw, uncompiled code. You could read it yourself. To use it, it must be compiled on your machine. Binary means the code was compiled into a machine language format that the computer can read, then execute. No human can understand the binary file unless its been dissected, or opened with some program that let's you read the executable as code.

Answer 2

A source release will be compiled on your own machine while a binary release must match your operating system.

source releases are more common on linux systems because linux systems can dramatically vary in cpu, installed library versions, kernelversions and nearly every linux system has a compiler installed.

binary releases are common on ms-windows systems. most windows machines do not have a compiler installed.

Answer 3

Binary releases contain computer readable version of the application, meaning it is compiled. Source releases contain human readable version of the application, meaning it has to be compiled before it can be used.