RE: JNI/CNI Revisited

[Jeroen Frijters]

Tom Tromey wrote:
> Jeroen> I really don't like this model, because it forces the VM into
> Jeroen> using a long for the file descriptor. IMHO a better
> Jeroen> alternative would be to have instance methods in
> Jeroen> java.io.FileDescriptor that call a static native.
> 
> I'm curious about this: when would using a long cause problems?  It
> seems to me that a native pointer will fit in a long on every
> platform.  In your VM, do you need to use an actual GC-visible object
> as the file descriptor?

Exactly. One of my goals is to use no native code and implement all the
Java "native" methods in C# using the .NET class library. The only place
where use native code is in the JNI layer, but that is only for third
party code, the VM itself doesn't use JNI.

In other words, in ikvm java.io.FileDescription is just a wrapper around
a .NET System.IO.Stream reference.

Regards,
Jeroen