gcc backend that can be interpreted by a java program?

Mon Jul 7 08:48:00 GMT 2003

Ranjit Mathew <rmathew@hotmail.com> writes:
> As far as I know, TrueType itself needs to be interpreted
> to draw the glyphs - so Adam, you'd end up interpreting
> the interpreter that interprets TrueType instructions. :-)

Right, but the bytecode language (and all interpreters of it) are
covered by Apple patents. Freetype is unique (and very cool) because
it can *infer* the hints automatically -- so it doesn't use the
bytecodes at all (anymore), and can even hint fonts that lack hinting
bytecodes (like SVG fonts and PostScript fonts).
> I don't know why you can't use JNI/CNI, but IMHO porting

We're committed to using pure Java:
 - XWT runs (in the JVM) on a lot of architectures that I wouldn't be
 likely to produce freetype.so binaries for (Sparc comes to mind).
 - XWT runs on the Danger Hiptop, which only uses pure java
 - XWT will soon run on PalmOS via Jump2, which only takes bytecode as
 input.
 - I want XWT to be portable to architectures I can't even imagine
 today. The JVM is a wonderfully simple architecture, and I'm
 confident that I can write a simulator (or even binary translater)
 for any future architecture.
 - a