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Re: Mailing List... where are you?


> Does [Kawa] rely on the proprietary SUN class libs?

Unclear question.  No, Kawa only depends on standard Java classes.
On the other hand, the Java standard is whatever Sun specifies.
I have not recently tried running Kawa using one of the free
Java implementations, but Kawa should run on any Java system
which has necessary libraries.  I should probably try Kaffe.
One of my goals for gcj is that by the end of this year (and
preferably sooner) it should be able to run all of Kawa well
and fast.  At this point, there is quite a bit to go.  Kaffe
is I am sure much closer;  it might even work as is.

> What is the advantage of gcj over kaffe?

Gcj compiles to native code using gcc and its optimizer,
and so can generate much faster code.  It can also generate
more compact code, at least compared to a JIT, and start up
faster.  Gcj has a easy-to-use and very efficient C++/Java
interface, which makes it easier to write native methods.
Thus the standard library will be much more effcient,
partly because we can use C++ conveniently, and partly
because it can be pre-compiled into a .so or .a archive.

On the other hand:  Kaffe is much more complete and useable
at this time;  the advantage of gcj is more potential than
actuality, though the actuality is already there for simple
programs that can manage with the existing limited library.

	--Per Bothner
Cygnus Solutions     bothner@cygnus.com     http://www.cygnus.com/~bothner