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Things are hotting up on the Java scene as far as the Amiga is concerned, with 2 commercial ports underway, plus freeware versions from ADE, and possibly another version from elsewhere - giving the Amiga user a range of choices for Java (although not all of them are available right now, there should certainly be quite a choice by the end of this year...)

(Remember - this is Java, the full product as developed by Sun Microsystems, not to be confused with JavaScript, which is a scripting language developed by NetScape.)

Name Supplier / Developer Availability Price Comments Guavac ADE Available now, but still under development. FreeWare This is purely a Java Compiler, which compiles the Java program into a stand-alone program for the target platform. Work is in progress to create a GNU CC front end to compile Java code. Information on getting this installed and working is available from here. Kaffe ADE Available now, but still under development. FreeWare This is a Java VM plus JIT compiler. Information on getting this installed and working is available from here. MERAPI Haage & Partner t.b.a. t.b.a. This will be available as a stand-alone Java VM plus JIT compiler, and will also be integrated in Voyager-NG 3. MOca Finale Development t.b.a. t.b.a. This should be available as a standalone Java VM and JIT compiler, and will be integrated into WebCruiser. Amjay Richard Gansel "pre-alpha" just now t.b.a. (free at the moment) This is very much an alpha product at the moment, but apparantly it does compile some Java already. P'Jami P'Jami development team Under development (?) Unknown This appears to be a Java VM plus JIT compiler. It is not known whether this project is still live - the web page has not been updated since August 1996.

Java Glossary

Java

Object oriented, platform independant language developed by Sun. It is targeted for a Virtual Machine, which is emulated on the target computer - thus Java programs can be run on any machine with Java capability, from just the one "binary".

JavaScript

JavaScript is a scripting language developed by Netscape - it has NO connection with Java!

J.I.T. compilation

Just In Time compilation - this is where the system does not waste time compiling the entire code. Instead, it compiles it as required at run-time, and stores the compiled code for subsequent use whilst running the program.

Millenium Timebomb

Sun has admitted that Java will encounter it's own "millennium bomb" - in the year 292,272,023, or about 292¼ million years from now. A team of programmers is rumoured to be rushing to fix the problem.

Netscape

Netscape is the company who developed JavaScript for use with their own browsers.

Sun

Sun Microsystems - the developers of Java.

VM

Java Virtual Machine - this is (usually) a software emulator of the "Java Machine" (the theoretical machine for which Java is written) which allows Java bytecode to be executed on other platforms.