Re: [DotGNU]Re: Java and Portable.NET

[Rhys Weatherley]

Marcin Krotkiewski wrote:

> There are other options. Gopal.V mentioned GNU ClassPath. If we compiled
> it to IL, we would have 100% portability... Unfortunately, we would have to
> have the binaries delivered to every user on the planet ;).

Only those that are intending to run Java IL programs on CLR's.

GNU Classpath is the way to go.  Once we have a capable
Java compiler, we can compile most of it to IL.  However,
there are some bits that will need rewriting.

Classpath, like all Java libraries, assumes that certain
methods are provided by the VM in the form of native
methods.  These native methods won't exist in a pure
IL environment.  However, it should be possible to do
the following:

Modify GNU Classpath to redirect the native methods
to equivalent functionality in the C# standard library.
e.g. file operations in "java.io" will redirect behind the
scenes to file operations in "System.IO".  Things like
strings are a little more difficult, but not impossible.

This will give us a pure "java.lang.dll", as Gopal metions.
It will come as standard with pnet, or be downloadable
from our Web site for use with other CLR's.  Thus, the
code generated by our compiler should run on any
ECMA-compatible CLR, with the appropriate library.

All of this is orthogonal to JVM bytecode support in
the pnet engine, or JVM2IL auto-conversion.  Those
can be tackled as separate projects.  We need a whole
spectrum of different Java support options.  There's no
need to lock ourselves into just one.

Cheers,

Rhys.