CHANGELOG and documentation

Sat Apr 1 00:00:00 GMT 2000

Matt Welsh wrote:
> As it is now gcj's a real "black box" until you've spent some time playing with
it!
I agree that something of a user manual is needed eventually, certainly in time
for the next release. I imagine that it would be written in Docbook or some
similar XML/SGML based format and would supersede most of the existing html
documentation fragments on the sourceware site. Here's a draft toc I wrote up
indicating the sort of things that might go into it:
gcj/libgcj: User and developer guide
====================================
overview of the gcj environment
 supported APIs
 missing features
 differences with traditional VM environments
 - binary compatibility rules
 performance indications
installation guide
 overview
 supported platforms
 the compiler (gcc)
 - "configure" options
 the runtime library (libgcj)
 - "configure" options [threads, gc, sjlj/exceptions, interpreter]
using the gcj compiler
 compiling java source
 building a shared library
 specifying java system properties
 list of command line options
 examples
garbage collection: boehm-gc
 configuring heap size parameters
the bytecode interpreter
 overview
 gij, command syntax etc
API notes
 Dynamic class loading:
 Class.forName()
 Runtime.loadLibrary()
 etc
Debugging & Profiling
Compiled Naked Interface (CNI)
 (this would include Per's existing CNI docbook stuff)
 examples
Hacking guide
 how to port the threads/file/signal layer, from existing htdocs
 various "how it works" information