title: Is byte not signed two's complement?
body: <p>Given that byte,short and int are signed, why do byte and short in Java not get the usual <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two%27s_complement" rel="nofollow noreferrer">signed two's complement</a> treatment ? For instance 0xff is illegal for byte.</p>
  
  <p>This has been discussed before <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/867365/in-java-can-i-define-an-integer-constant-in-binary-format">here</a> but I couldn't find a reason for why this is the case.</p>