[sword-devel] native java was:UI for Windows Question...

[Eeli Kaikkonen]

On Wednesday 12 March 2003 17:02, Chris wrote:
> Well I had a little Java swing program, about 5kb .jar file. And when I
> asked it to, JBuilder7 converted it into a .exe of about 70kb, that
> didn't appear to require the JRE. How it works I don't know, but it
> seems to work. There's also the option of Linux and Sun/Sparc native
> executeables.
>

Java the language  and Java the runtime environment are two different things. 
gcc compiler compiles java code to native elf-executables in linux. All you 
need is the needed libraries in right form (most of the non-gui libraries are 
there for gcc) and a garbage collector. After all, JVM is basically just 
another "processor architecture". If some byte-compiler can compile for it, 
then some other compiler can compile java code for some other architecture. 
Additionally it is possible to code with some other languege and compile it 
to java byte code and run it in JVM. Although this all may be simplified.

Basically it's possible to make native awt and swing libraries and do native 
code cross-platform development with java but implementing those libraries 
would be a huge task. Still it could be reasonable to use the best of the 
both worlds: native speed and ease and clarity of java the language. Quite 
much what Borland is trying to do with Delphi and Kylix?

But does this relate to sword some way...?

Eeli Kaikkonen