portability, java and Apple

tim Rowledge tim at rowledge.org
Thu Jan 26 20:59:25 UTC 2006


On 26-Jan-06, at 12:47 PM, Jason Rogers wrote:

> On 1/26/06, Philippe Marschall <philippe.marschall at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 2006/1/26, tim Rowledge <tim at rowledge.org>:
>>> Spotted a note on wired.com about the powerPC-intel transition;
>>> "Java-based applications compiled for PowerPC chips are broken, such
>>> as file-sharing client LimeWire; and so are any appli..."
>>> Um, pardon me but wasn't java supposed to be portable? Yes, I
>>> understand that this is at least partly to do with the JNI nonsense
>>> but really - does no one ever learn?
>>
>> So they need to be recompiled like squeak plugins?
>
> touché
Wrong. The plugins are provided with the Squeak application and your  
end-user application is a portable image. JNI is a deliberate with- 
malice-aforethough binding of an *application* to a particular OS/cpu.

Yes, you can be that stupid with Squeak if you want. You can make an  
image that uses FFI in such a way that it can only work on one  
platform. With a tiny bit more thought you can abstract that an make  
an image that uses the right FFI for each platform, or even handles a  
platform without an FFI capability. I expect that with thought you  
could do the same in java but the that much thinking would probably  
lead you to not do it in java anyway.


tim
--
tim Rowledge; tim at rowledge.org; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
Strange OpCodes: HEM: Hide Evidence of Malfunction





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