Open source Java projects: I'm putting together a project proposal to migrate a Sun JVM system to a separate JNI client using swing and a backend based on the gcj CNI to do heavy duty processing work. It's fun to be able to apply ingenious open source technologies to one's work
I only just saw the Slashdot interview with Miguel de Igaza. Just look at what he says the Mono project must do:
- A CLI runtime with a JITer for x86 CPUs.
- A C# compiler.
- A class library
Let's call the target platform of the GCJ compiler Java/CNI (Java C native interface). The existence of Java/CNI makes doing the equivalent in Java of the first two of these three things very much easier than developing it all from scratch as Mono must do. The CLI run time and Java compiler exist already. Even the third point is well-developed, due the the GNU CLASSPATH and GNU CLASSPATH Extensions projects (now merged with gcc), though there is hard work here: Java/Mono would need an implementation of the Swing classes on Gtk+ (or, heretical thought, Qt).
If Miguel *must* sell his soul to Microsoft, at least he should get something worthwhile for his sacrifice. Since the true-GNU java based alternative is already so developed, I don't see the point.