Older blog entries for tan (starting at number 3)

So the gcj toolchain seems to be properly compiled under Windows. And I've been able to compile and run a simple hello world.

After some hesitations, I've also compiled and linked simple SWT code, which is my main goal for now. Sadly, this dies when setting up SWT Display. gdb only revealed some arcade parts of stacktraces handling in libjava; nothing I can debug myself for now.

Since I don't know how to handle this, I posted a message to gcc's java list. I've registered to it when I started playing with gcj; those people seem pretty reactive.

My discovery of the wonders of open-source java compilers continues, as I dig deeper in gcj mailing lists archives...

So ecj does not compile to native code... I'll stick to gcj then.

Actually, I packed together rmathew's instructions in a shell script and after some fiddling, I've successfully built my first Windows gcj compiler yersterday!

It's a priviledged moment: as I didn't have time to read the compilation logs and test the resulting binaries, I am not aware for now of any problem that may have happened :-)

In my study of the native java compilation ecosystem, I discovered an interesting compiler project, GCJX. One of the goals of GCJX is to replace the current Java front-end in GCJ. Sounds nice.

Then I discovered that its main developer, Tom Tromey, is seriously reconsidering his project. But in that same message, I learnt the existence of the seemingly little-known Eclipse Java Compiler (ecj). Which looks nice from a performances point of view, but doesn't even answer to its name...

Anyway. I kind of goofed around with MinGW/MSYS-based gcc compilation, without much luck for now. But I spent some time on cross-native (or whatever it's called) compilation of a Windows gcc compiler under linux, and this looks very promising.

Hum, the previous link doesn't seem up at all time; here is the goggle cache entry.

First entry. Great.

I feel that Java/SWT under Eclipse is a slick way to develop apps. But being able to share those apps with people without the hassles of JVM installation and kludgy integration would be great.

Here enters native compilation. As a testbed, I'd like to compile a small SWT example demonstrating some nice native features (tray icons and tooltips) under Windows.

For this test to be useful, it should be performed using open-source tools and a modern java environment version (1.4.2 at least, preferably 5.0 or whatever it's called today).

Some documentation exists, but I'd like to write some more up-to-date, no-fuss instructions.