http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1) that fully supports the Java language and the ever-expanding Java 2 class library, and the command-line interpreter, compiler, and debugger are capable tools used by thousands of programmers. In fact, many of the latest Linux implementations bundle the Sun JDK.
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Now that Sun officially supports Linux with each new version of the Java 2 Software Development Kit (JDK), you might assume that no other tools are needed to code Java on your favorite OS. After all, the JDK is a free (as in beer) download (available from http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1) that fully supports the Java language and the ever-expanding Java 2 class library, and the command-line interpreter, compiler, and debugger are capable tools used by thousands of programmers. In fact, many of the latest Linux implementations bundle the Sun JDK.
Now that Sun officially supports Linux with each new version of the Java 2 Software Development Kit (JDK), you might assume that no other tools are needed to code Java on your favorite OS. After all, the JDK is a free (as in beer) download (available from http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1) that fully supports the Java language and the ever-expanding Java 2 class library, and the command-line interpreter, compiler, and debugger are capable tools used by thousands of programmers. In fact, many of the latest Linux implementations bundle the Sun JDK.
However, the world of Java on Linux doesn’t orbit entirely around Sun. There are excellent compilers, development environments, and other implementations available — many under an open source license.
This month’s Java Matters is devoted to several of these Java alternatives, with an emphasis on those that have practical use for Java programmers (as opposed to some of the interesting research projects in virtual machine design and non-Java bytecode compilation). Two of the alternatives, Blackdown Java and the IBM JDK, are very similar to the official Sun JDK.
For comparative purposes, it’s worth noting that the official JDK for Linux requires kernel version 2.2.12 and GNU libc (glibc) version 2.1.2-11 or later.
IBM’s jikes for Linux
jikes is a command-line compiler from IBM that offers extremely fast compilation, makefile generation, and incremental builds. The program, released under the open source IBM Public License, is available from http://www-124.ibm.com/developerworks/oss/jikes. If you’re running Debian, SuSE,…
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