[kaffe] How to change the default compiler from kjc to others

[Dalibor Topic]

ktlam at cs.hku.hk wrote:
> Dear all, 
>  
> Due to some reasons, I have to use an older version of Kaffe 1.0.6.
>  

Hi,

I'm a little curious what the reasons are :)

> I wish to ask is it possible to change its default compiler from kjc to 
> others? 

I assume you are talking about the installed javac compiler wrapper,
i.e. Kaffe's bin/javac which delegates to kjc.

If you want to change it, you need to patch the javac.in file (which is
either in kaffe/scripts or a subdirectory of it) to invoke the compiler
you want to use, and may have to set the right options to set the
bootclasspath, etc.

For an example for jikes, see the javac.in file in Kaffe 1.1.6. It
should be similar for other compilers (ecj, etc.). If you want to use
jikes transparently in tomcat via ant (i believe that's possible in
tomcat 4 and later), I'd recommend pre-setting build.compiler property
to jikes.

> If yes, then how? Also, could you recommend a good open-source 
> compiler other kjc? Can jikes do?

Jikes (1.22) works fine for many cases, but it does not seem to be very
actively maintained at the moment.

Besides jikes, I'd recommend ecj, eclipse's compiler, if you need a
compiler written in Java. See FAQ.classlibrary-compile in CVS head for
more information on where to get it, etc.

cheers,
dalibor topic