Amiga Java

Things are hotting up on the Java scene as far as the Amiga is concerned, with 2 commercial ports underway, plus freeware versions from Kaffe.org, 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
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 shoudl be a very rewarding package. 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.

This page is copyright © Keith Blakemore-Noble , 1997, 1998 , all rights reserved. For comments or questions about this page, please EMail WebMaster@BuiltWithAmiga.org. This page was last updated on August 11, 1998 .

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