ANNOUNCE: JIGS 0.7.0

[nicola]

This is the announcement of JIGS Version 0.7.0.

What is JIGS ?
==============

JIGS is a free (LGPL) Java Interface for GNUstep; it can automatically
wrap Objective-C libraries based on GNUstep making them accessible
directly to the Java programmer as if they were Java libraries.  As a
side effect, the whole engine can be used in the reverse way: JIGS
provides a high level API to allow Objective-C programmers to start
java virtual machines inside GNUstep Objective-C code and access
transparently java objects in the java virtual machine as if they were
objective-C objects.

Authors
=======

JIGS was brought to you by Nicola Pero <nicola@brainstorm.co.uk>.

Brainstorm Computer Solutions (http://www.brainstorm.co.uk) funded the
development of JIGS.

Maintainers
===========

JIGS is currently maintained by Nicola Pero <nicola@brainstorm.co.uk>.

Release Notes for JIGS version 0.7
==================================

This release adds support for morphing of selectors.  This improvement
required extensive additions to the JIGS core engine and to the
WrapCreator tool.

Release Notes for JIGS version 0.6
==================================

This release supports building wrappers of debugging libraries, and
keeping and running them on the same system as wrappers of
not-debugging libraries.

Release Notes for JIGS version 0.5
==================================

This release includes a first very partial and experimental wrapper of
the gnustep gui library; WrapCreator supports prerequisite libraries;
bug fixes.

Release Notes for JIGS version 0.4
==================================

This release includes a first partial wrapper of the gnustep base
library; the WrapCreator tool has been modified to parse the header
file only once, so it is now much faster.  Many bug fixes too.

Release Notes for JIGS version 0.3
==================================

First release of WrapCreator, an automatic wrapper tool for JIGS.
The wrapper can automatically generate the code to wrap an objective-C
library to Java.

Release Notes for JIGS version 0.2
==================================

Alpha support for subclassing an Objective-C class in Java.
Better support for exposing Objective-C class methods  to Java.

Release Notes for JIGS version 0.1
==================================

This is the first public release.  While the core engine is mostly
working, the high level APIs and tools are still missing.  In
particular, we don't have a wrapper tool yet.  And, the base gnustep
library has not yet been wrapped.

The core engine is organized in the following way:

   * A little library (ObjcRuntimeUtilities) to programmatically
   add classes and methods to the objective-C runtime while it is
   running;

   * A little library (GSJNI) of utilities to program JNI using GNUstep.

   * A little class (NSJavaVirtualMachine) keeping track of the java
   virtual machine presently running and incidentally providing a
   simple API to start a java virtual machine.

   * The real core engine (JIGS itself), built on top of the previous
   layers.  Most of it is written in Objective-C, but part is in Java.

Version 0.1 contains an example of an objective-C gnustep library
wrapped by hand and exposed as a Java library.  Following this
example, it should not be too difficult to wrap by hand simple
libraries.

Tests and examples of the reverse (starting a java virtual machine in
an Objective-C executable and accessing java objects from objective-C)
have been written, but not included in JIGS 0.1.

Software Needed to Use JIGS
===========================

To use the JIGS, you need:

  * A version of the Objective-C runtime library compiled as a shared
  library (and working with GNUstep).  Please refer to the INSTALL
  file for more information on how to compile and install it.  This is
  needed only to load objective-C libraries into a running java
  virtual machine, while you don't need it to start a java virtual
  machine inside an already running objective-C app or tool.  Please
  note that there are no examples yet of doing the latter in JIGS
  though, so if you want to play comfortably, getting a shared
  Objective-C runtime library is recommended.

  * GNUstep make package and base library.

  * A java development environment supporting JNI 1.2.

Special Thanks
==============

To Richard Frith-Macdonald <richard@brainstorm.co.uk> for countless
discussions and help during development of JIGS 0.1.

Obtaining JIGS
==============

JIGS is available at http://www.gnustep.it/jigs/Download/
New releases and snapshots can usually be found on the JIGS homepage,
http://www.gnustep.it/jigs/.
You may always get the latest version of JIGS from the GNUstep CVS -
the module is called 'java'.

Bug Reports
===========

The best way to submit bug reports and fixes is to email them to
<bug-gnustep@gnu.org>.