Re: question about vm/reference files

[Brian Jones]

Eric Blake <address@hidden> writes:

> What is the reason that some of the VM dependent core .java files are
> not located directly in the top tree, while others are?  For example,
> java/lang/Object.java is in the main tree, but java/lang/Throwable.java
> is only in the vm/reference subtree.
> 
> I understand why things like VMClassLoader.java are not in the main
> tree, since that is not a public API, even if it does compile to the
> java.lang package.  But for compilation 3rd-party projects, jikes needs
> a .jar file with all the public APIs, even .class files for things like
> Object (where the VM probably never loads the .class file, because the
> it just uses native code).  It is annoying to have to look in two places
> to build this .jar file.
> 
> Would there be anything wrong with moving these .java files from
> vm/reference/java/lang to the main tree at java/lang?
> Class
> Runtime
> Thread
> Throwable
> reflect/Constructor
> reflect/Field
> reflect/Method

The thought was that Classpath either would not provide the classes
that are VM dependent (leaving those to the VM) or that there would be
multiple directories (vm/gcj, vm/orp, vm/kaffe, etc.)  The ugly
complexity appears to be necessary.

Brian
-- 
Brian Jones <address@hidden>