Re: porting libgcj to PalmOS

[Tom Tromey <tromey at cygnus dot com>]

>>>>> "Peter" == Peter Mortier <pmlist@BIGFOOT.COM> writes:

Peter> I'm very interested in getting libgcj ported to the PalmOS. Has
Peter> anybody tried this yet?

I haven't heard of anybody doing it.  It sounds like a great idea!

Peter> I have already built a gcc cross-compiler and necessary tools
Peter> for the PalmOS target on my Linux machine. Basically, I don't
Peter> care about porting threads, no threads will do just fine for
Peter> starters.

Ok, that makes things a bit easier.

Peter> Nor am I interested in porting the file system, nor AWT, I'll
Peter> use CNI instead to write-to/read-from Palm databases and paint
Peter> to the Screen. Real support for AWT and file system could be
Peter> added later on.

Ok, you'll want the ecos file system code then -- it just stubs
everything out.  This hasn't been tried in a while, so it is possible
that it won't fully work.

Peter> Could anybody give me some pointers on how to get started with
Peter> adding a new target? Does the boehm-gc have to be ported? What
Peter> other issues could be of importance? Any feedback will be
Peter> greatly appreciated!

As Alex points out, porting the GC isn't necessary at first, but at
some point you will want to do it (unless you plan to write all of
your code in a strange style).

There are also miscellaneous bits of code that need some function or
another frmo the C library.  These aren't very well organized.
Basically I think you will have to change configure to know about the
Palm target.  You will need to add code so that configuring for the
Palm uses the ecos filesystem code, no-gc by default, etc.  You may
also want to modify the code that does function checks for embedded
builds not to assume newlib, but instead add a new case for the Palm.
I'm afraid this area is a bit ugly still.

Tom