Re: About gcj present and future

Re: About gcj present and future

[bbaker]

GCJ has several cool features.  The important one to me is CNI.  A CNI  
interface to OpenJDK would be a positive step for the credibility of  
CNI and hence GCJ.  Not to mention it would be extremely useful to  
OpenJDK.

I'm a programmer, but I honestly have no idea the level of effert  
required for such a feature, or if it is even in the realm of  
realistic.  I suspect there are both a brute-force-almost-impossible  
method and an extremely clever 10K SLOC method.

bbaker

Re: About gcj present and future

[Andrew Haley]

On 01/17/2013 07:17 PM, bbaker@softhorizons.com wrote:
> 
> GCJ has several cool features.  The important one to me is CNI.  A CNI  
> interface to OpenJDK would be a positive step for the credibility of  
> CNI and hence GCJ.  Not to mention it would be extremely useful to  
> OpenJDK.
> 
> I'm a programmer, but I honestly have no idea the level of effert  
> required for such a feature, or if it is even in the realm of  
> realistic.  I suspect there are both a brute-force-almost-impossible  
> method and an extremely clever 10K SLOC method.

You wouldn't get CNI exactly, but it would certainly be possible
to get close.  The C++ and Java type systems aren't really compatible,
so you'd have to be pretty devious.

Andrew.

About gcj present and future

[Ernesto]

Hi,

I'm new on this mailing list and new to gcj and I find it fascinating.
I have several questions about gcj present and future:

1. Are there new developments on it? Support for Java 7 language new
features? (like automatic resource management or the new List<>()
diamond constructors?)

2. I installed it in a Xubuntu linux box and Swing works fine on it,
but in Mac OS X Swing simply does not work. Is any Mac related work on
it?

3. I read somewhere that gcj is in "active maintenance mode". Does
that mean that we can trust it will be available in next versions of
gcc? Or is there some plan to discontinue it? I want to start an app
on it and I would want to know it will be available for several years
now (CNI interface is a very amazing piece of technology).

Thanks!

Re: About gcj present and future

[Andrew Haley]

On 01/08/2013 05:26 AM, Ernesto wrote:

> I'm new on this mailing list and new to gcj and I find it fascinating.
> I have several questions about gcj present and future:
> 
> 1. Are there new developments on it? Support for Java 7 language new
> features? (like automatic resource management or the new List<>()
> diamond constructors?)

GCJ doesn't have a Java source compiler, so it doesn't support any
particular Java source features.  It relies on some other Java ->
bytecode compiler .  GCJ is behind in terms of things like JSR 292,
(Supporting Dynamically Typed Languages on the Java Platform).

> 2. I installed it in a Xubuntu linux box and Swing works fine on it,
> but in Mac OS X Swing simply does not work. Is any Mac related work on
> it?

I don't think there is.

> 3. I read somewhere that gcj is in "active maintenance mode". Does
> that mean that we can trust it will be available in next versions of
> gcc? Or is there some plan to discontinue it? I want to start an app
> on it and I would want to know it will be available for several years
> now (CNI interface is a very amazing piece of technology).

Well, yes.  Good question.  I'd love to restart active development of
GCJ, but OpenJDK is free software and is way ahead in terms of
features.  GCJ has some advantages, but so far these haven't been enough
to persuade people to work on it.  If we don't do something soon it
may be too late.

Andrew.

Re: About gcj present and future

[Ernesto]

>> 3. I read somewhere that gcj is in "active maintenance mode". Does
>> that mean that we can trust it will be available in next versions of
>> gcc? Or is there some plan to discontinue it? I want to start an app
>> on it and I would want to know it will be available for several years
>> now (CNI interface is a very amazing piece of technology).
>
> Well, yes.  Good question.  I'd love to restart active development of
> GCJ, but OpenJDK is free software and is way ahead in terms of
> features.  GCJ has some advantages, but so far these haven't been enough
> to persuade people to work on it.  If we don't do something soon it
> may be too late.

Could you please elaborate more on "way ahead in terms of features"?
 Which features, for example?

 Must we rely on the Java Class Libraries? Providing a nice set of
 classes (an alternative framework) would be a feasible way to turn gcj
 into a new life? (another UI framework, implementations on top of
 existing native libre/open source, etc) As I told you in my first
 email, I am new on gcj so maybe the things I'm writing on are unreal,
 unfeasible or completely not applicable.


> Andrew.

Thanks!


Ernesto

Re: About gcj present and future

[Andrew Haley]

On 01/08/2013 05:44 PM, Ernesto wrote:
>> Well, yes.  Good question.  I'd love to restart active development of
>> GCJ, but OpenJDK is free software and is way ahead in terms of
>> features.  GCJ has some advantages, but so far these haven't been enough
>> to persuade people to work on it.  If we don't do something soon it
>> may be too late.
> 
> Could you please elaborate more on "way ahead in terms of features"?
> Which features, for example?

The Classpath library is somewhere between 1.5 and 1.6.

> Must we rely on the Java Class Libraries? Providing a nice set of
> classes (an alternative framework) would be a feasible way to turn gcj
> into a new life? (another UI framework, implementations on top of
> existing native libre/open source, etc) As I told you in my first
> email, I am new on gcj so maybe the things I'm writing on are unreal,
> unfeasible or completely not applicable.

Well, it's a huge job.  A better idea IMO would be to fix gcj to use
the OpenJDK class library, which would take maybe half a programmer-
year for someone with the right experience.

Andrew.