Newsgroups: comp.os.plan9 From: oauvinen@cc.HUt.FI (Olli-Pekka Auvinen) Subject: NOW AVAILABLE: Kaffe for Plan 9 Reply-To: gutu@iki.fi Organization: Helsinki University of Technology Date: Tue, 19 May 1998 18:05:46 JST NOW AVAILABLE: Kaffe for Plan 9 =============================== A famous Java interpreter implementation Kaffe has now been ported to Plan 9 operating system. For the first time in the history of Plan 9, a proper execution engine for Sun Microsystems Java (tm) bytecode has been ported to Plan 9. This enables all the numerous Plan 9 developers to use Java as a programming environment in Plan 9. This is because porting the interpreter allows various Java developer's tools like Sun's Java compiler to be used in Plan 9 environment. Kaffe for Plan 9 is programmed for Intel 0x86 architecture. Java API version supported in Kaffe is 1.1.3 but it is not fully complete. The supported API is a subset of the API in Kaffe version 0.9.2. A few parts of the API are missing like AWT. The biggest difference between the original Kaffe version 0.9.2 API and the ported API lies in network API. The lack of socket abstraction in Plan 9 caused the ported TCP and UDP implementations to have a bit limited functionality as socket options are missing. The biggest implication of this is that multicast sockets can not be used. In addition to the java interpreter, original Kaffe distribution package contains a just-in-time compiler implementation that makes Java bytecode execution very fast. Our separate package for Plan 9 contains an incomplete JIT compiler because there are a few bugs concerning e.g. nested exceptions. The JIT part of the package can be freely developed and fixed. Notice that we take no responsibility for any consequences of using this software package. Package can be found at least from this URL: http://www.iki.fi/gutu/plan9/plan9.html All questions regarding Kaffe for Plan9 are adviced to be directed via e-mail to: gutu@iki.fi