Re: gij as JRE 5

[Andrew Haley]

Andrew John Hughes writes:
 > On Sat, 2004-11-13 at 19:49, Tom Tromey wrote:
 > > >>>>> "Bojan" == Bojan Antonovic <address@hidden> writes:
 > > 
 > > Bojan> Java 5.0 has some new language extensions. Many (?) of them, like
 > > Bojan> generics, are compiled in the way that the byte code binary is
 > > Bojan> compatible to older versions. While extending GCJ to support the new
 > > Bojan> language extensions can take a while, it should be easier that GIJ 
 > > can
 > > Bojan> run them. Does anybody know when those new binaries will be 
 > > supported?
 > > Bojan> Can it be done for GCC 4.0 ?
 > > 
 > > Here are the minimal changes required to support 1.5 bytecode.
 > > 
 > > * Make sure we recognize the new class file version number.
 > > 
 > > * Change the bytecode verifiers to accept "ldc <class>" when the
 > >   bytecode in question came from a 1.5 file.  (For the libgcj
 > >   verifier I already have a patch for this, it is in gcjx.  It could
 > >   easily be merged.)
 > > 
 > > * Change the interpreter and the bytecode front end to the compiler
 > >   to recognize this opcode.
 > > 
 > > This set of changes is pretty easy.
 > > 
 > > 
 > If this is the case, then is there a good reason for not starting to
 > include 1.5 changes, that will compile with pre-1.5 compilers, into the
 > HEAD branch?

I'd like this for gcj,

 > It seems a shame to not support 1.5 bytecode, largely because it just
 > calls methods that are absent from GNU Classpath (and, in the case of
 > some of the most frequent ones, implemented in the generics branch).
 > 
 > This does, however, conflict with the idea of getting to a 1.0 branch
 > pretty soon.
 > 
 > Comments?

Make 1.5 bytecode a reqiurement for the 1.0 branch.

Andrew.