Can I compile Java code into a UNIX executable as if it were Pascal?

Creating "Native" Java Applications on Mac OS X

If you develop on Mac OS X you can use the

Jar Bundler

application to turn jar files into Mac OS X applications.

Jar Bundler

is distributed with the other developer tools and is located in

Developer/Applications/

.

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/JavaLP/JavaToMac3/

I think that's about as close as you can come... no expert though. 🙂

As I thought, but unless you can rewrite the Java code in C or such, I can't see another option, like a cross compiler.

Cross-compilers do not exist (well, not *really*) for Java to C for several reasons. The biggest reason the the way that each language handles memory. I have used both, so I can tell you from experience.

C has two types of in-memory data:

• Pre-defined variables
• Dynamically allocated memory from the "heap".

"Heap" is a large amount of memory that is created when a program in loaded into "active space". In essense, every C program runs in a "virtual machine" created when you run it. C programs often "dynamically allocate" more memory as it needs it. But the original programmer had to be very careful about cleaning up after memory it allocated -- free it when no longer in use. Also, C programs can overwrite its own "non dynamic" variables because C does not have any mechanisms to "stop at defined size".

In short, C is a world of landmines, especially concerning memory.

Java was supposed to fix that.

The JVM is a world that manages its own memory. It has several advantages over C:

• Memory for every variable comes off the "heap"
• Memory for variables that have no more "references to them" are eliminated (called "garbage collection")
• The sizes of all variables are known all along, so no variables can be ovewritten.

Java was also created to always use the same "low-level code". Whether it runs on Windows, Mac, Linux the "program" can be the same and the JVM handles the translation into the "machine-level" code reauired to run.

C code *MUST* be in the machine-specific code that each specific class of CPU knows. PowerPC is the prime example: PPC apps are compiled for a chipset that no longr is made, so a "virtual machine" (Rosetta) is required to execute it.

There is no good way to bridge that gap between "manually managed memory and machine-specific pre-compiled instructions" and "JVM with commonly-used intermediate language codes".

Sorry.

If you did start to learn to re-write in C, you have a fairly steep leraning curve.

Oh, I didn't recommend C, nor have I recommended it since 1985 with my 1st encounters on Atari with it, I mean kudos to those that can use it, but I cannot & will not, Assembly is far easier for me, and sometimes placing things on the Stack is in order, but not most times like C did/does(?).

All I was tyring to say is Java Is Java, it'll only run in a JVM unless you convert it painfully, or there was such a cross compiler, of which the last one I used was Z80<->X86, & just more trouble than it was worth. 🙂

"Let's give the C-program to Mikey. He won't like it. He hates everything!" 😉

😁

But there's far worse, like APL which required fluent Klingon, or MS VBasic that had at least one command that was a very big Paragraph, or the original Atari Basic that took 10 minutes to execute...

For x = 1 to 10

Next x

So anyway, what does this Java App do that it doesn't already exist elsewhere?

You can also post in "Developer Forums" (https://discussions.apple.com/community/developer_forums). They might have more to say than bad mis-quotes of 80's commercials.

Good idea! 🙂