No, you don't have to use cygwin. There's a mingw32 version that will let you build real cygwin-less binaries. See http://www.thisiscool.com/gcc33_mingw.htm
People are even building ActiveX controls with gcj: http://www.xwt.org
I can speak with some authority on this, since I actually run a natively compiled Tomcat on Linux. I can compiler servlets into.so files so they get used instead of the.class files, or it will just read and use the.class/.jar files directly. Tomcat 3.* works nicely. http://sources.redhat.com/rhug. Gary Benson is working on Tomcat 4.* right now. The trick it to build it properly and shake any remaining bugs out of our core class library implementation.
And, yes - there's even a mingw32 gcj (which you can also use from Linux as a Linux-cross-mingw32 compiler).
gcj really is within 10% of g++ on this benchmark, unfortunately he built the gcj program without the all important -ffast-math option (and -funroll-loops). This is a huge penalty for gcj - more than 2x slower without.
I sent him a note and hopefully he's update his page.
Sun also announced that as future Sun-lead specifications are finalized it will allow compatible alternate implementations (including J2SE, J2EE and J2ME) under Open Source licenses.
As a contributor to gcj I was very happy to read this when it was first announced.
I started contacting people at Sun to sort this out and get details on the how and when. While I feel I'm getting closer to the right people - it's taking a frustratingly long time to sort out.
Looking forward to some real progress...
AG
This is *partially* good news
on
Java for EGCS
·
· Score: 1
Last time I looked, gcj compiled from bytecode, rather than source, so I can't see that you loose any cross-platform compatability.
It actually does both, as well as source->bytecode.
I'm afraid there isn't a whole lot of quality info available yet on this news. Here are some key points: - A bunch of us have been hacking on Mauve for a while now. - HP's contributions are pure JLS 1.0 compatability tests (for the libraries) - They are Free - GPL'd Free - and come with no strings attached. - It's a major contribution that benefits all of our Free software efforts. - Anyone can contribute tests, fixes, changes, whatever to this project. Just subscribe to the lists. - The folks at HP aren't just throwing this over the fence. They have a real desire to be good net citizens and participate in the maintenance of this project.
I, for one, am very grateful for HP's generousity. GCJ, Classpath and Kaffe will benefit enormously from their contribution.
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No, you don't have to use cygwin. There's a mingw32 version that will let you build real cygwin-less binaries. See http://www.thisiscool.com/gcc33_mingw.htm
People are even building ActiveX controls with gcj: http://www.xwt.org
AG
I can speak with some authority on this, since I actually run a natively compiled Tomcat on Linux. I can compiler servlets into .so files so they get used instead of the .class files, or it will just read and use the .class/.jar files directly.
Tomcat 3.* works nicely. http://sources.redhat.com/rhug. Gary Benson is working on Tomcat 4.* right now. The trick it to build it properly and shake any remaining bugs out of our core class library implementation.
And, yes - there's even a mingw32 gcj (which you can also use from Linux as a Linux-cross-mingw32 compiler).
gcj really is within 10% of g++ on this benchmark, unfortunately he built the gcj program without the all important -ffast-math option (and -funroll-loops). This is a huge penalty for gcj - more than 2x slower without.
I sent him a note and hopefully he's update his page.
Compiling his benchmark with -ffast-math and -funroll-loops more than doubles the performance of the gcj built benchmark on my P3.
This brings it within spitting distance of g++.
"Could one, for instance, now compile a Java program using the SWT library to a native binary using GCJ, so it could be run without using a JVM?"
n apshot.tar.gz
Yes, absolutely. Get ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/rhug/swt-gcj-green-s
Run configure/make/make install, and you'll en up with lib-org-eclipse-swt.so.
People are also building for Win32 using gcj for Windows (or a cross compiler from Linux)
AG
See http://www.klomp.org/mark/gij_eclipse/
That's Eclipse running on top of gcj (http://gcc.gnu.org/java), making it a 100% Free solution.
(btw some of the problems he mentions on that page have already been fixed (like the memory problem))
AG
Even easier.... Grab
- sn apshot.tar.gz
ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/rhug/swt-gcj-green
and just configure/make to get lib-org-eclipse-swt.so with gcj.
As a contributor to gcj I was very happy to read this when it was first announced.
I started contacting people at Sun to sort this out and get details on the how and when. While I feel I'm getting closer to the right people - it's taking a frustratingly long time to sort out.
Looking forward to some real progress...
AG
Last time I looked, gcj compiled from bytecode, rather than source, so I can't see that you loose any cross-platform compatability.
It actually does both, as well as source->bytecode.
I'm afraid there isn't a whole lot of quality info available yet on this news. Here are some key points:
- A bunch of us have been hacking on Mauve for a while now.
- HP's contributions are pure JLS 1.0 compatability tests (for the libraries)
- They are Free - GPL'd Free - and come with no strings attached.
- It's a major contribution that benefits all of our Free software efforts.
- Anyone can contribute tests, fixes, changes, whatever to this project. Just subscribe to the lists.
- The folks at HP aren't just throwing this over the fence. They have a real desire to be good net citizens and participate in the maintenance of this project.
I, for one, am very grateful for HP's generousity. GCJ, Classpath and Kaffe will benefit enormously from their contribution.
AG - green@cygnus.com