Java cross-compiler to AVR target (?!)

[Andrew Haley <aph at redhat dot com>]

E. Weddington writes:
 > 
 > 1. Would the Java compiler be "screwed up" or "incomplete" without those 
 > other subdirectories being built?

No.

 > 2. Would it even matter, given the target, if those subdirectories were 
 > not being built?

It depends if you want these Java programs to run.  You need a runtime
library to do anything at all.

 > 3. I'm sure most of the standard Java libraries don't apply to an 
 > embedded processor. But, all that would be required to control the AVR, 
 > is to be able to read/write to memory-mapped registers and to flip bits 
 > at the byte level (like C bitwise operators). Is this at all feasible in 
 > Java?

You'd need to write a native code device driver to do that.

 > 4. Any idea what's with the oddly named "avr-avr-gcjh.exe" installed file?

Beats me.  I would guess it's a bug.  :-)

The problem with gcj for small targets is that libgcj is a rather
monolithic library with a vast amount of support for all things Java.
It wouldn't fit in an AVR.

It is possible to write a small subset Java runtime library: Sun have
an interesting one in JavaCard(TM).  It would be an interesting
exercise.

Andrew.