Using GCJ to make Java libraries available for other languages

Wed Mar 5 10:46:00 GMT 2003

One of the really neat things about Java is that it provides
access to a raft of useful opensource libraries.
Need an SHA1 algoritm? Need an FTP server builtin to your app?
All these and more are answered by Java and the opensource 
community.
It would be really neat if other languages could get access
to these components. This is probably more useful on Windows
than Linux(since there are more weird languages on Windows).
Here is what I had in mind(didn't find anything on google):
- Use GCJ to compile a native DLL
- This DLL could have a Windows COM typelibrary which exports
specified Java objects.
- Import the COM object to Visual C++, Visual Basic, Delphi,
etc.
To be sure, one shouldn't mention Visual Basic and open source
in the same sentence, but I don't think this is supporting
non-opensource as much as it provides a way for legacy 
projects to access the opensource community.
It be nice if Java opensource libraries could offer 
"write once, bind anywhere" :-)
Øyvind