263
C
HAPTER
9
Platform
Independent
Development with
Java
n previous chapters most of the discussion centered around GNU devel-
opment tools and programming in C and C++ languages. This chapter
is devoted to Java development and describes how to use some Java tools
and a Java virtual machine.
As many of the readers already know, Java is a different language com-
pared to other compile-and-execute languages in that it needs a Java vir-
tual machine (JVM) to execute what is called
byte code
. Each platform
has its own implementation of the Java virtual machine. There are many
JVMs available on Linux platform in free and open source as well as com-
mercial domains. Some virtual machines are also available for embedded
Linux platforms that are very small in size and need little memory to exe-
cute. You can select a virtual machine based upon your requirements. Java
virtual machines are built on Java Language Specifications (JLS). Infor-
mation about JLS and books in downloadable format can be found at
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/.
This chapter provides some information about how to use different devel-
opment tools on Linux. The most commonly available tools are Sun SDK
and GNU
gcj
compiler. Kaffe and Jboss are other very popular open
source development tools on Linux and these are introduced in this chap-
ter. However please note that this chapter is not a tutorial on Java lan-
I