[kaffe] kaffe and javax

[Dalibor Topic]

On Tue, Oct 25, 2005 at 10:54:44AM +0000, Clemens Eisserer wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> > It seems to me that the requested function are implemented in
> > libraries/javalib/java/awt/
> >
> > which is part of GNU classpath, while I'm using the implementation
> > from libraries/javalib/awt-implementations/kaffe/java/awt/,
> >
> > So the question is: to have the supoprt for swing, do I need
> > to use GNU classpath: the problem is that, from what I understand,
> > if I remove
> > --without-classpath-gtk-awt
> > from configuration, I will need GTK, which is not present
> > in my system: so to use swing, do I need to install GTK?
> 
> You're right, classpath's swing is only supported running on top of
> Classpath's AWT implementation :-(

Yes. It should be possible to a certain degree to replace Kaffe's
original AWT's classes by GNU Classpath's and to move some of the native
code into peers that could be plugged into GNU Classpath, but noone has
done that yet. Volunteers are most welcome.

> Hmm, could be interresting to try to push kaffe's X implemntation so
> that it would be compatible again since its quite lightweight and
> stable compared to classpaths GTK based AWT which for now still
> appears a bit "clumsy" ;-)

Well, since it uses Xlib, it's probably more lightweight that using a
wrapper around Xlib. On the other hand, chosing a lightweight GUI
toolkit written in Java up front may be an even better choice, since
both AWT and Swing are pretty big and feature rich.

> There have been reports that the proprietary swing-version does work
> on Kaffe's XAWT (search the mailing lists, there have been some posts
> about this issue), although not the very last one but previous
> releases.

Yes. It used to work last time I tested it a few years ago, but I'd
recommend using Free Software instead, to avoid falling into the Java
Trap :)

The only Sun Swing implementation that I managed to run on Kaffe's X11 
AWT implementation was the implementation from Swing 1.1.1 FCS, which
was before Java2, and that code has long passed into EOL state, and
isn't any longer supported by Sun. Whether relying on an unsupported
release of some proprietary software from 5+ years ago is a suitable
solution for a lot of problems, I'm not sure. I know I'd prefer to use
something else, and your suggestion to use LwVCL is a very good one.
There are also Thinlets, that may be more suitable for the mobile use,
than a full blown AWT or Swing GUI.

> Another thing I could recommend is using yet another lightweight
> library, I would recommend LwVCL ( www.lwvcl.com ) which I used to
> develop a quite complex rich-client applet and which should be much
> more suited for your use. Using it you could also remove most of
> kaffe's swing and awt (all the native widgets) classes.

Yep. Thanks for mentioning it!

cheers,
dalibor topic

> lg Clemens
> 
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