Amiga Java

Finally, some very good news for the Amiga as far as Java is concerned!
Holger Kruse, best known for bringing us the Miami TCP/IP stack, has announced that he will be releasing a new Java implementation for the Amiga very soon, under the name of Daytona^TM.
There are also still some freeware Java implementations around, with solutions both from Kaffe and from long-time Amiga company RamJam who bring us their port of IBM's JVM, Jikes.

(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, and Krakatoa, East of Java which is a film from 1969... Incidentally, did you know that Krakatoa is actually West of Java?)

Name	Supplier / Developer	Availability	Price	Comments
Daytona^TM	Nordic Global Inc	Q4 '99	Free	The basic Daytona package will be a comprehensive Java2 implementation, complete with AWT and JFC support, multithreaded nativre Amiga operation (not Unix-emulation libraries), and 100% compatible with Sun's Java specification. A free developers package will also be released including a javabyte compiler and other development tools. Further, a commercial DaytonaPLUS version will also be available, which will include full 68k and PPC JIT compilation and more advanced AWT implementations, amongst other things. This will also enable Daytona to add Java support to existing Amiga web browsers.
Jikes	RamJam	Now!	FreeWare	Jikes is an Amiga port of the Jikes Open Source Java compiler from IBM. It compiles Java source files into Java byte-code class files, which can then be run on a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). This is the first of many planned Java products from RamJam, depending upon the level of support they get from this product.
Kaffe	Kaffe.org	Available now, but still under development	FreeWare	This multi-platform free version of Java supports both JIT compilation and Interpretive running of Java on the Amiga. This implementation does require compilation and installation and is not for the faint-hearted - if you are after a point-and-click-to-install Java, then this is not (yet) the one for you. However, if you are happy to play around with compilers and the like, then this should be a very rewarding package. One point to note is that the Amiga version does not have the Java graphics support, so is text-only so far...
Amjay	Richard Gansel	0.1.9 verion available	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.

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.
Millennium 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.

This page is copyright © Keith Blakemore-Noble , 1997 - 1999 , all rights reserved. For comments or questions about this page, please EMail WebMaster@BuiltWithAmiga.org. This page was last updated on November 7, 1999 .

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