Ported Mips2Java to Win32, GCJ, Applets

[Mohan Embar <gnustuff at thisiscool dot com>]

Hi All,

"If I told you that you could take sources for a C
console application and convert them to 100% Pure
Java code that can be hosted in an unsigned applet,
would you believe me?"

Check out my Win32 / GCJ port of Mips2Java plus a
cool applet demo here:

http://www.thisiscool.com/mips2java.htm

As I say on the web page, my patches make it so:

- either gcj or javac can be used to compile
  the runtime and your sources. 
- either Cygwin bash or MSYS can be used on Win32 to
  build the Mips2Java runtime. (Only Cygwin can be
  used to build the MIPS cross compiler, however.) 
- the runtime supports hosting within a Java applet 

These patches and the sample work under both Win32 and
Linux. The Win32 bundle has prebuilt cross compiler
binaries.

(
Can someone try eliza.jar under gij w/AWT and tell
me what happens?:

gij -cp eliza.jar Mips2JavaEliza
)

Adam and/or Brian: If you go to the above page and
download the POSIX bundle (50K), you'll get my patches
in:

thisiscool-mips2java/thisiscool-mips2java.diff

Could you review these? (I haven't documented them
or provided a formal ChangeLog. Wanted to see if
you all were interested first.)

The idea was to allow MSYS to be used (so I broke
the runtime-building dependency on PERL), allow
gcj to be used to build the runtime as an alternative to
javac and allow Java code to be hosted in an unsigned
applet (cf. Runtime.getSystemProperty()).

In thisiscool-mips2java/thisiscool, I have AWT
helper classes which make it trivial to host a
a C console application within a Java applet. I've GPLed
these so you're welcome to assimilate them into the
Mips2Java mainline.

Since I'm lazy, this post is serving the dual purpose
of informing the Java / Win32 / gcj / applet-building
community of the existence of this as well as informing
the Mips2Java developers of the existence of my patches.
We can continue the development discussion somewhere else.

Thanks again for giving me such a neat toy to play with.

Enjoy.

-- Mohan
http://www.thisiscool.com/
http://www.animalsong.org/