Re: Re[2]: JNIPort for VisualWorks

> But according to Steve Jobs, nobody uses Java anymore.
>
>> Hi Joachim,
>
>> I'm definitively interested on that, because I think it is strategically
>> important for Smalltalkers to have a "bridge" to Java world. I think a
>> Smalltalk community knowledgeable on Java should help you to keep going
>> on. I can help as a user, because I don't have any experience with Java
>> development.
>
>> Thanks for you effort and best regards
>> Janko
>
>> joachim.geidel@... wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I think it's about time to get this off my chest:
>>>
>>> I've been working on porting Chris Uppal's JNIPort to VisualWorks.  
>>> JNIPort is a class library which allows Java code to be invoked from  
>>> Smalltalk, using a regular Java VM to execute the Java code. If you  
>>> are interested in details, have a look at
>>> http://www.metagnostic.org/DolphinSmalltalk/JNIPort.html
>>>
>>> JNIPort would allow instant access to any Java class library, and even  
>>> calling back into VisualWorks (although with some limitations when  
>>> multithreading is involved). This would open up a whole new world -  
>>> e.g. monitoring a VisualWorks application server using JMX,  
>>> integration of Java messaging using JMS, using all of those free and  
>>> commercial Java libraries available on the market. Chris even has an  
>>> example for opening a Swing GUI showing a hierarchy of Smalltalk  
>>> classes - certainly not something you would want to do in a real  
>>> application, but it shows what's possible.
>>>
>>> The current state of the VisualWorks port is "can calculate the abs of  
>>> a float, but crashes with access violations when trying to do  
>>> something useful (after successfully generating wrappers for about 100  
>>> real Java classes)". Currently, it's Windows only, but it should be  
>>> easy to include other platforms. The original Dolphin Smalltalk  
>>> version works perfectly, of course - the access violations are a  
>>> feature which I introduced. Once this bug is corrected, the rest  
>>> should be easy.
>>>
>>> For various reasons, I haven't had enough time to finish the port  
>>> during the last few months, and I hope that someone from the community  
>>> might help with debugging the access violations. This does not mean  
>>> that I'm abandoning the project, leaving the mess to someone else. I  
>>> still want to do it, but given the circumstances, I think that it  
>>> might make more sense if I give others a chance to participate. ;-)  
>>> I'll post the current state of the code to the public repository as  
>>> soon as possible (probably next weekend) together with instructions  
>>> about other files from metagnostic.org which you'll need.
>>>
>>> Just a quick check to see if it's worth the effort: Anybody  
>>> interested, either in using JNIPort, or in participating?
>>>
>>> Joachim Geidel
>>>
>>>
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