Jason Karney wrote:
I thought it would be nice to have a class browser/development tool for Java that worked like Squeak's.... and the portability of Squeak would be anadvantage for development.
VisualAge for Java has some very nice (and powerful) browsers. The whole system is heavily influenced by Smalltalk's tools. The debugger is identical to the VisualAge for Smalltalk tool and VAJ even features a scrapbook (aka workspace) where you can interactively evaluate Java expressions.
I'm not sure whether the world needs yet another IDE. I think, the decision about the best development tool is fought between the major players like Symantec, Microsoft, IBM, etc..
The ideas you mentioned sound about right. I envision a tool that allows for classes to be rapidly "cobbled" together, and (hopefully :-)) compiled by a call to javac. The embedded javavm would be interesting, but I doubt anybody has the time for that :-)
You can also try to emulate the Java byte code instructions in Smalltalk or try to cross compile them to Smalltalk byte code instructions. ParcPlace tried to do something similar with the FROST project, I think. Other companies also tried this and from what I've seen I can say it can be done. However while VisualWorks's VM is barely fast enough, Squeak would probably too slow.
Helge Horch wrote:
What a coincidence. No, not yet. But I have thought that a Squeak-based classfile browser for analysis, cross-reference and disassembly would make a nice side project. (I also imagined a JavaVM inside Squeak ala IBM's UVM or Smalltalk/X, but that would exceed my alloted spare time.)
Interesting idea. For JAVISION (please excuse the shameless plug), a tool read in and visualize both Java source and Java class files using UML notation, that will be distributed by Object Insight (www.object-insight.com), I wrote a class file and source file parser in VisualWorks Smalltalk. It's not that difficult to write. I cannot publish that source code, but I might be able to help to recreate something similar in Squeak.
I've also tried to retarget the CCodeGenerator for Java, but have only managed to open a can of ugly worms so far.
What's the problem? I once wrote a small translator for VisualWorks Smalltalk (based on the ProgramNodeEnumerator) and it was not that difficult. It can emit syntactial correct Java source, but it cannot optimize types. For "3+4", it will generate "new STInt(3).add(new STInt(4))". "'A' = str ifTrue: [...]" is translated to "if (new STString("A").eq(str) == STBool.true) {...}" and so on. And it of course assumes that the complete Smalltalk class library has already been translated. To be honest, it's just a proof of principle and it's also hacked together.
bye -- Stefan Matthias Aust // Are you ready to discover the twilight zone?