Re: [gentoo-java] work on gcj for gentoo

[Karl Trygve Kalleberg <karltk@gentoo.org>]

Hanno Meyer-Thurow wrote:
> Hi list!
> I would like to work on gcj for Gentoo.

Excellent! We need all the help we can get.

> I thought in a gcj-4.1 / ecj combination. Use ecj to bytecompile Java
> source to jar with gcj as backend. Then use gcj to create native
> executables or libraries out of that jar files. Creating a database
> via gcj-dbtool for jar / native code resolution. If possible Java to
> native.

The problem with this approach is your resulting programs will be
potentially rather slow.

While gcj can indeed compile .class files (inside .jars) to binary, I've
been told it can produce the most efficient of results. The source code
is much richer in structure than the bytecode, and opens up for many
effective optimizations which could only be reached through
"idiom-recognition" (which doesn't exist for gcj yet, afaik) of the
.class files.

I suspect that you shouldn't give up on using gcj as a source compiler
quite yet. This story may evolve with the whole ecj/gcjx/GPLv3 debate.

Just my 0.02CAD,

-- Karl T
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