MacJikes v1.2b5

News

Jikes for MacOS X DP3 is available. (Feb 29, 2000)

Jikes for MacOS X DP2 is available. (Dec 30, 1999)

MacJikes 1.2b5 is available. It is based on IBM's Jikes 1.06 (the latest "stable" release). The documentation is a little more user-friendly and support for dealing with aliased files has been added.

I used the term "100% Pure Java" in the past in reference to some of MacJikes's capabilites, but poorly worded it. MacJikes is not written in Java as is implied by a program being "100% Pure Java" compliant. I will either avoid this term in the future, or clarify exactly what the relation is to MacJikes. The documentation in the current distributions that mentions "100% Pure Java" should be ignored; it will be changed in the next release. (5-6-99)

MacJikes 1.1r5 released: Includes the Jikes 0.47 core. The Drag&Drop AppleScript is a lot more robust. The script walks you through building a command line. Basically, it lets you choose folders and files for your classpath, your source files, and the destination path, which are all then formed into a command line and passed to MacJikes. I plan on making this even more useful by allowing you to save "build scripts" for MacJikes which you can then just drop on the application. (3-23-99)

Online shareware registration for MacJikes is available. (3-2-1999)

Contact me about MacJikes using this address, sbytnar at kagi.com. I want your feedback.

Do not use "from file" in the "Command line interface" dialog. Why? See the FAQ. (2-16-1999)

FAQ updated on MacJikes' Java bytecode optimization. (2-11-1999)

Abstract

MacJikes is port to MacOS of one of the fastest Java compilers available. The source base for this program has only been modified to incorporate support for the MacOS file system. No changes to the core functionality will be made. Therefore, this is a compiler based directly upon the Java Language Specification. MacJikes is shareware. $15 per user.

Status

MacJikes v1.2b5, 1.06 core. Added alias support. Made documentation more user-friendly.

MacJikes v1.2b4, 0.55 core. Synchronization release.

MacJikes v1.2b3, 0.53 core. Asserts & exceptions handled better now.

MacJikes v1.2b2, 0.51 core. Configurable compiler heap size. MPW error out fixes.

MacJikes v1.2b1, 0.47 core. Run one, compile many. PowerPC app only.

MacJikes v1.1r5, 0.47 core. Better Drag&Drop AppleScript.

MacJikesPPC v1.1r4, correctly patches v1.1r2 to not exhibit the "FindSymbol" error.

MacJikesPPC v1.1r3, bad patcher program.

MacJikes v1.1r2, Jikes core 0.45r1, 0.43r1, 0.41r1.

MacJikes v1.1, Jikes core v0.43r1 & v0.41r1. AppleScriptable, multi-threaded, swappable cores, better GUI, better long name support. 68K and PPC fully optimized! (The guess-what-I-had-nothing-better-to-do-today release 2/14/1999)

MacJikes v1.0, Jikes core v0.41r0. Initial release. Supports the MacOS HFS file system. Basic user interface (1/24/1999)

Application Requirements

68020 or better or PowerPC Mac.

For very small projects, 4MB will work. I chose the default of 8 or 9MB of RAM for moderate projects like Mindbright's MindTerm ssh-for-java applet and application.

With MacJikes 1.2, memory allocation for MacJikes is done from temporary memory. Basically, you can allocate the "Largest Unused Block" size for MacJikes to do its work. You should not change the memory requirements for the application itself. Check out the STR 1000 resource.

68K system capable of running MacOS with CFM-68K, Thread Manager, and AppleEvents. Basically, if you have MRJ 1.51 installed, you should be ok. CFM-68K is a future requirement, and is not needed for MacJikes v1.1.

MPW Tool requirements

Any Mac capable of running MPW Shell, that also has Thread Manager and enough spare RAM for the MacJikes compiler to read in your .class and .zip files.

Software

Thanks to Mindvision, you only need a BinHex decoder in order to install MacJikes.

MacJikes v1.1r5 - last "non-beta" version - All-in-one download

MacJikes v1.2b5 - latest beta version - All-in-one http download

Bugs?

• Long filenames are truncated. If a generated file has a output filename that would be greater than 32 characters, MacJikes will print out a warning saying the file was written with a truncated name. Long directory names are not yet supported.

• Certain .zip files cause crashes when they are used in the -classpath.

• On large projects, it may seem like MacJikes has crashed. Be reasonably patient. I used a profiler to find some of the best places to yield to other applications. IMO, MacJikes' "yielding" is reasonable the way it is currently configured (well, at least for PowerPC).

For more information, read the Frequently Asked Questions page.

Support

Please report MacJikes specific bugs to me, sbytnar at kagi.com.

If you submit a bug report to Jikes Compiler Project, please email me about the problem as well.

MacJikes includes software developed by:

Philippe Charles, charles at watson.ibm.com

and

David Shields, shields at watson.ibm.com

of IBM Corp. as part of the IBM Research Jikes Compiler Project, http://www.ibm.com/research/jikes

Remember, if you do run into problems, it would be good idea to check the MacJikes FAQ page first (as mentioned in the "Known problems section.") If the problem is reproduceable only under MacOS, direct the email to me. Please indicate your development environment, the situation, and steps to reproduce the problem.

How can I tell the difference between a Jikes compiler bug and a MacJikes bug?

If it crashes, it is a MacJikes bug most likely. Email me, Steven Bytnar (sbytnar at kagi.com), with the output of a Macsbug "stdlog"! The most important part is the "sc6" and "sc7 sp 1k" listings.

If your code compiles fine under javac, but does not compile under MacJikes, and your code adheres strictly to the Java Language Specification, then you might want to report problems by using the resources described on the Jikes Compiler Project homepage.

Disclaimers

Some names and products copyright by respective holders.

This program is my own product, and is not representative of the host of these web pages.

Thanks to my brother for helping make the "smiling" blender icon for MacJikes.

Trademarks and copyrights held by their respective companies.