RE: [Java-gnome-developer] cvs will not work - java-gnome under c onstruction

[Jeffrey M. <Jef...@Br...>]

I am about to leave from work now.  I am sorry this
is a short reply.  I will try to provide more
details soon.

I have been very frustrated with the public API and 
the actual generated code for the project.  I'll 
address each separately.

Generated Code
The generated code has many problems and the generator 
is unable to handle numerous conditions.  Over time the
JNI layer became larger and more complex.  It also
made the project quite difficult to debug and was
a barrier for many who wanted to join the project.
The generator code that I just checked in (and will
be enhancing over the next few days) makes a very thin
JNI layer.  More code will be pushed up into the Java
layer as a result.

Java-GNOME API
The old generator attempted to create a public method for
each method in the native library that was being wrapped.
There were over 2300 public methods in java-gnome.  Since
it was structured much like the c libraries it didn't
feel like a well designed java class library.  Also, it
was so complex (due to the size) that it was difficult
to use.

The new generator will still create a wrapper around each
of the native library methods but will make them protected.
I will be writing (not generating) a public Java API over
these generated methods.  The public interface will be
simpler and more java-like.

This will change the public interface of the library.  I
am sorry for this.  This will be painful for those of
you that have existing code.  As you can imagine, there
is much Java code to be written and your help would be
appreciated.  The result will be a well designed, more
robust object-oriented class library.

Got to go now.  I will commit more code this evening.

Thanks
-Jeff


> On Tue, 2002-07-23 at 21:32, Jeffrey Morgan wrote:
> > For about the next month most of the examples
> > and tests will also not work in CVS.  I am
> > in the process of a long overdue restructuring
> > of the java-gnome bindings.  The end result is
> > going to be a much cleaner and easier to use
> > interface.  
> Could you give more details on this. Is it the internal workings of
> java-gnome that you are changing, or major changes to the API?
> (This would seem strange as you still call them 'bindings', 
> yet failure
> of the examples would suggest it is).
> 
> > For those of you who wish to see the project
> > succeed I could use your help.  The changes I
> > am making over the next few days will make it
> > much easier for you to contribute to the project.
> Intriguing. I guess we'll just have to wait a few days. 
> Please let us know more when you are ready.
> -- 
> 
> +----------------------------------------------+
> | Mark Howard               cam.ac.uk   mh344@ |
> | http://www.tildemh.com    tildemh.com    mh@ |
> +----------------------------------------------+
>