[kaffe] Problems compiling Kaffe

[Dalibor Topic]

Fernando Lozano wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> I got Kaffe from CVS and tried to compile it myself but I cant 
> understand why it needs jikes and whi it needs a Java VM. The configure 
> script barks about these two pre-requisites. Wasn't Kaffe supposed to 
> provide both a Java compiler and a Java VM?

Hi Fernando,

thanks for your bug reports!

I don't recall the configure script checking for a Java vm. Could you
post a snippet of the configure output? I think there was something like
that in the configure script of gjdoc, I may have merged it in without
thinking too hard about it and made a mistake, but I'm not sure. Kaffe 
shouldn't need an installed VM to build, if the configure script barks, 
then it's a bug.

Regarding jikes: you need a java compiler to build the class library. 
Currently only jikes is supported in a user friendly way out of the box, 
I plan to add user-friendly support in the configure script for 
externally installed kjc, gcjx, ecj, gcj and javac soon.

> I could also find no info on how to use another Java compiler in place 
> of jikes (wanted to use gcj). If Kaffe build really needs a Java 
> compiler and Java VM, couldn't it use gcj / gij and so I could build it 
> using only free software?

gcj used to be pretty broken for compiling any class library other than 
it's own for a while. I haven't tried it on Kaffe's class library in 
ages, but I'll give it a go tonight, and try to add a --with-gjc option 
to the configure script.

cheers,
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