Re: [Java-gnome-developer] GCJ & java-gnome

[Andrew C. <an...@op...>]

On Sat, 2009-12-05 at 01:06 +0300, Emad Al-Bloushi wrote:
> 
> 1 - Can I compile my java-gnome applications to native machine code
> via GCJ

Hard to say.

In the early days of java-gnome 4.0 we built a proper libgcj .so shared
library as well as our .jar file.

But that was fraught with nightmares.

At the time the GNU Classpath Project was making great strides, but GCJ
[for various historical reasons] does not use the latest Classpath glibj
release and instead forks a copy into the GCC tree from time to time. As
a result, your standard library as provided by libgcj [which is in turn
provided by your GCC] is always 1-3 years behind the latest Classpath
release. If you trip over any bugs, you're screwed.

Worse, if someone had GCJ installed on their system, it would tend to
conflict with a normal [at the time Sun, now Open] JDK if installed, and
there were *many* bugs & build failures for java-gnome as a result.
Needless to say I got tired of it all.

So somewhere around 4.0.6 we ripped the GCJ support out of java-gnome's
build process. Peace and tranquillity was the result.

GCJ is not dead, not by any means. It was a remarkable concept. But most
of the people who were working on it have gone elsewhere.

++

You are, of course, welcome to try and use GCJ [as gcj compiler &
linker, not as a javac lookalike] to (re)build java-gnome and then your
application. It might work for you.

{shrug}

I will note that in the 4.0.0 - 4.0.2 days, GCJ [as compiler and linker]
& GDB were very helpful, especially in figuring out what the signal
handling code was up to. But I haven't needed it in years.

And now that we can run `java` in GDB [2], I don't really expect to need
to go back to GCJ.

If you have a commercial requirement to use GCJ to build your programs,
feel free to contact me off list.

++

If you're having trouble figuring out how to make an app properly
installable and executable and packagable, then that's a different
question.

There are many approaches to that problem. None are ideal.

You might have a look at Slashtime [1]. It has a reasonably sane
approach to ./configure && make && make install. Not saying that it is
great, but it does ok for installing, translations, etc.

AfC
Sydney

[1] http://research.operationaldynamics.com/projects/slashtime/
[2] http://blogs.operationaldynamics.com/andrew/software/free-java/get-java-to-coredump.html


-- 
Andrew Frederick Cowie

Operational Dynamics is an operations and engineering consultancy
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