[java] What is a good java compiler?

There is only one Java compiler: The JDK from Sun. J++ was simply an IDE for Java, it''s no longer supported. C# is a Microsoft ripoff of Java, with some changes made.

[edited by - Euronymous on March 12, 1998 7:07:06 AM]

There are quite a number of Java compilers available. You can get them from Sun, IBM, Blackdown, and a couple of other open source compilers like Jikes. All these compilers generate bytecode that run in a JVM.

If you want a Java compiler that generates executables that don't need a virtual machine, take a look at JET, and GCJ.

There's probably more that I'm missing

[edited by - NuffSaid on April 11, 2003 4:36:23 AM]

seriously?
I thought that they were just different implementations of the Sun compiler.

[edited by - Euronymous on March 12, 1998 7:07:06 AM]

Sun just provides a reference compiler. They basically set the standard, and everyone else just makes a compiler/vm that conforms to the standard. However, Blackdown is basically the Sun compiler, with some modifications (I think).

so which is best?

[edited by - Euronymous on March 12, 1998 7:07:06 AM]

Best at what?

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"Laughter means distance. Where laughter is absent, madness begins. The moment one takes the world with complete seriousness one is potentially insane. The whole art of learning to live means holding fast to laughter; without laughter the world is a torture chamber, a dark place where dark things will happen to us, a horror show filled with bloody deeds of violence."
-- Jens Bjørneboe

There are only two ''proper'' Java compilers/virtual machines. The reference implementation from Sun, and one from IBM. IBM''s tends to be generally faster for floating point operations (and probably slightly slower for most other operations). The Eclipse IDE comes with its own compiler (not sure whether its it own or IBM''s) which seems to spit out more understanable error messages.

Bear in mind that the Java virtual machine does a lot more work that a C or C++ runtime, and so compiler performance differences are usually non-existant, its the actual VM that makes the difference..

quote:

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Original post by OrangyTang
The Eclipse IDE comes with its own compiler (not sure whether its it own or IBM''s) which seems to spit out more understanable error messages.

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IBM is behind the Eclipse project.

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"Laughter means distance. Where laughter is absent, madness begins. The moment one takes the world with complete seriousness one is potentially insane. The whole art of learning to live means holding fast to laughter; without laughter the world is a torture chamber, a dark place where dark things will happen to us, a horror show filled with bloody deeds of violence."
-- Jens Bjørneboe

Well that answers that point then I should of realised that when posting.. I''ve been meaning to transfere over to Eclipse for a while now but not quite got around to it.

If you''re looking for a replacement for javac, I''d like to throw in a vote for Jikes. It''s been around forever and is very good. Biggest problem with javac is that the compiler itself is written in Java, so it can get pretty slow. Jikes is done in C and is lightning fast. Also it has more descriptive error messages.

FWIW, you can change the error message format to conform to the old javac format so that you can use it with existing IDE''s.

quote:

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Original post by johnhattan
If you''re looking for a replacement for javac, I''d like to throw in a vote for Jikes. It''s been around forever and is very good. Biggest problem with javac is that the compiler itself is written in Java, so it can get pretty slow. Jikes is done in C and is lightning fast. Also it has more descriptive error messages.

FWIW, you can change the error message format to conform to the old javac format so that you can use it with existing IDE''s.

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Javac isn''t written in Java.

yeah, if javac was written in java you would have to type "java javac" or "java -jar javac" to get it to run.
Maybe this guy is talking about IDEs? I use JCreator. The freeware version is very solid, very functional, and very easy to use.

I would assume he was talking about IDE .. because thats what most people are familier with when compiling there java programs.. Personnaly i use JBuilder from Borland.