Re: GCJ 3.2 for Win32: Updated Snapshot

[Ranjit Mathew <rmathew at hotmail dot com>]

Ranjit Mathew wrote:
> 1. AWT/Swing still do not work (though SWT does!).
I think the SWT part merits a bit more of an
explanation. ;-)

This mail explains how to create native GUI applications
written in Java using SWT and GCJ 3.2 for Win32.

1. You will first need to create a native library for
   linking SWT applications, say "libswt.a":

      a. Get the swt.jar and swt-win32-xxxx.dll files from your
         Eclipse installation.
      b. Extract the class files from swt.jar into a temporary
         folder and compile each into a native object file using
         gcj (be sure to use the -fjni option to gcj).
      c. Combine all of these object files into a single library.

   (This method was suggested by Ingo Bormann (a.k.a. Linuxhippy?).)

   If you have MinGW MSYS, you can use a convenient shell script
   that I'm attaching at the end of this message to create this
   library. Create a *separate, temporary folder*, say "/tmp/swt"
   and execute this script in MSYS after you've edited it to point
   it to your Eclipse/SWT installation (be sure to update the SWT
   DLL version number as well) - I am using Eclipse SDK 2.0.2. After
   it executes successfully, it will leave you with libswt.a,
   the SWT JAR and the SWT DLL in the folder in which it was
   executed.

2. Now take your favourite SWT program and try compiling it like
   this:

   gcj --classpath=./swt.jar --main=HelloSWT HelloSWT.java -L. -lswt

   (assuming that the SWT library, JAR and DLL are all in the current
   folder)

3. Execute the program thus created and rejoice. ;-)

(See:

http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-nativegui/index.html

if you want to know more about creating native GUI applications
using GCJ and SWT.)

Here is the shell script to automate the steps given in (1) above:
------------------------------ 8< -------------------------------
#!/bin/sh

SWT_BASE_DIR="/c/Program Files/Eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.swt.win32_2.0.2"
SWT_JAR=$SWT_BASE_DIR/ws/win32/swt.jar
SWT_DLL=$SWT_BASE_DIR/os/win32/x86/swt-win32-2052.dll

jar -xvf "$SWT_JAR"

SWT_CLASSES=`find . -name "*.class" -print |sed 's/^\.\///'`

for i in $SWT_CLASSES
do
    OBJ_FILE=`echo $i |sed 's/\//_/g' |sed 's/\.class$/\.o/'`
    echo Compiling $i to $OBJ_FILE
    gcj -fjni -g0 -c -o $OBJ_FILE $i
done

gcj -c --resource=org.eclipse.swt.internal.SWTMessages \
    -o SWTMessages.o org/eclipse/swt/internal/SWTMessages.properties

echo Creating libswt.a
ar -rcs libswt.a *.o
ranlib libswt.a

echo Cleaning up
rm -fr org
rm -fr META-INF
rm -f version.txt
rm -f *.o

echo Copying SWT DLL
cp "$SWT_DLL" .

echo Copying SWT JAR
cp "$SWT_JAR" .

echo Done.
------------------------------ 8< -------------------------------

Sincerely Yours,
Ranjit.

--
Ranjit Mathew          Email: rmathew AT hotmail DOT com

Bangalore, INDIA.      Web: http://ranjitmathew.tripod.com/