draft paper on Java support in Gnome

Tue Jul 11 07:55:00 GMT 2000

Maurizio De Cecco wrote:
> 1) Gnome is more than gtk; what about the rest ?

The techniques described clearly are not limited to gtk. In fact I'm
considering applications outside of Gnome altogether.
Besides, some of the Gnome extensions (e.g. canvas) may find there way
back into gtk, if they haven't already.
> 2) Are gtk bindings for Java needed ?

I think some programmers might be interested in having an alternate
toolkit besides AWT and Swing.
> What about using 'simply' a gtk based implementation of the AWT ?

I suspect mapping gtk to AWT would lose a lot of the API. AWT widgets
are pretty minimal, and Sun has all but stopped work on AWT widgets.
> 3) The exact contrary of the above: is the AWT needed ?

The AWT is important, but not for Gnome development. Interoperability
isn't really much of an issue, given that people who don't use Gnome
won't be interested in developing Gnome applications in Java.
> What i really mean is that a possible answer to question 2 is to say:
> f**k Sun, let's do Java our way; then adapt to Java the UI
> technologies available in the free software world, and don't consider
> the standard Java technologies.

Per's paper does seem to advocate using Java as a language, not a
platform. I don't consider that a bad thing. It is reasonable that the
gcj developers would be more philosophically aligned with the gcc team's
goals than with Sun's goals. Many GNU tools extend the platform they
are trying to recreate.
That said, supporting AWT is probably essential in the long run.
--
Jeff Sturm
jeff.sturm@appnet.com