Re: Classpath on linux-ppc

[Mark Wielaard]

Hi,

On Tue, 2002-10-08 at 11:04, Arnaud Vandyck wrote:
> For clarification:
> 
> Mark Wielaard <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > The easiest is to use gcj with libgcj. This works perfectly on PPC.
> > libgcj is based on GNU Classpath but a lot of merging work is still
> > needed. (See http://gcc.gnu.org/java/libgcj-classpath-compare.html)
> > Note that libgcj takes a lot of time (and disk space) to compile.
> > It is certainly not the nicest platform to do quick write, run,
> > debug cycles if you are hacking on the core libraries.
> 
> Compiler

And Runtime! It also contains gij (GNU Interpreter for Java) for
interpreting bytecode and programs compiled to native code  are
completely self-contained since libgcj contains all necessary runtime
support.

> Anthony Green <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > It's not so bad if you can do your development outside of libgcj.
> > For instance, many new packages can be developed outside of libgcj
> > and then merge it in when you're happy (like a new javax.* package).
> > You can also avoid native compilation and link times by testing with
> > gij.
> 
> So maybe the first step would be to contribute even with a non-free
> implementation of a jdk as Sascha and Anthony suggest. When
> contribution is ok, I'll try to test it with gcj (for compilation) and
> kissme (for runtime) as Mark suggest.
> 
> Am I right? Any other suggestions are welcome.

When not working on the core classes I agree with Anthony that using gcj
as compiler (and runtime) is probably the easiest. (Especially when
working on a non-x86 platforms.) And if it works with gcj it will
probably work out of the box with any VM based on GNU Classpath.

Note that there is also jikes <http://www.jikes.org/> a free bytecode
compiler and Kaffe <http://www.kaffe.org/> a free bytecode interpreter
(but no jit yet) which includes another class library which can both be
used on Powerpc. Code written using jikes/kaffe should also work with
GNU Classpath based VMs (and if they don't that is a bug that we like to
hear about).

Cheers,

Mark