the value of a variable. It is a series of bytes generated by the following grammar:<P>
<PRE>
<CODE>&lt;field_signature&gt; ::= &lt;field_type&gt;</CODE>
<CODE>&lt;field_type&gt; ::= &lt;base_type&gt;|&lt;object_type&gt;|&lt;array_type&gt;</CODE>
<CODE>&lt;base_type&gt; ::= B|C|D|F|I|J|S|Z</CODE>
<CODE>&lt;object_type&gt; ::= L&lt;fullclassname&gt;;</CODE>
<CODE>&lt;array_type&gt; ::= [&lt;optional_size&gt;&lt;field_type&gt;</CODE>
<CODE>&lt;optional_size&gt; ::= [0-9]*</CODE>
</PRE>
The meaning of the base