On 29/04/2004 03:02 Carlos Rodrigues wrote:
Joe Dumais wrote:gcj is a java source code compiler that supports both byte code and binary compilations/linkings. Every piece of code that I have written that compiles in gcj compiles on the Sun JDK for byte code applications. I have not investigated the JDK sufficiently to know if it supports binary compilations.
Thanks anyway but I was asking if I could drop Sun's JDK on Fedora Core 2 and have the Java apps shipped with it start using it instead of the runtime provided by GCJ/GNU Classpath without making any significant changes, just like if they had been built with it.
I prefer to use Sun's JDK (and I intend to start developing using 1.5/Tiger) and if I could just install that and not have to recompile/reinstall ant and all that, that would be a nice bonus.
I'd be wary of throwing out the JDK just yet. GCJ is pretty new and only supports a sub-set of the Java SE APIs (incomplete swing for instance). As a Java professional, I don't really see why I should put up with a partial implementation and I certainly wouldn't choose to push my clients in that direction ATM.
Carlos
PS: Sun's JDK does not support native compilation, only bytecode.
Plus JIT/Hotspot on that bytecode. I tried the GCJ build of Tomcat on FC1 a while ago and it's performance is abysmal. I suspect this is because, although it has a bytecode interpreter, it lacks JIT compilation. Maybe they'll fix that someday.
Having said all of this, I do hope that GCJ/Classpath continues and improves. There could be advantages to be had in not having to have a JRE installed to run a program.
-- Paul Thomas
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