Porting the Java(tm) Language

http://www.javasoft.com/porting.html (PC Press Internet CD, 03/1996)

Porting the Java(tm) Language

General Information

Sun's Java(tm) technology has now been released in source form (see the Source Release page for more info).

Technical Issues

No port is going to be easy, but some are significantly harder than others - depending on how well the host platform supports certain requirements. There are three main sections of platform-specific code: the Language Runtime, the graphics libraries, and networking support.

The Java Language Runtime is highly multithreaded. The most difficult part of porting the runtime is figuring out how to do threads and synchronization, signals, interrupts, etc. on your platform. It is not just a matter of recompiling for a new OS.

The graphics and networking code connect the programmer's portable APIs to whatever support the host provides. All in all, a port to any platform is a substantial amount of work.

Ports Being Done Elsewhere

For information about Java Language ports being done outside the Java Product Development group see our External Mailing Lists page.

Inquiries About Porting

We have established a mailing list for porting issues and to help coordinate porting efforts. To subscribe, send the word "subscribe" in the BODY of a message to java-porting-request@java.sun.com. If you prefer to read the mail in digest form, send the word "subscribe" in the BODY of a message to java-porting-digest-request@java.sun.com. More information on using our mailing lists is available on a separate page.

Copyright © 1995 Sun Microsystems, Inc., 2550 Garcia Ave., Mtn. View, CA 94043-1100 USA. All rights reserved. For Java technical support, see the newsgroup comp.lang.java or send mail to java@java.sun.com. For problems with this web site, send mail to webmaster@java.sun.com.