Java Binding

OK, here goes.  I never did find out if this is still the proper place 
to submit stuff like this, so I'll assume it is.  I guess I'll give it a 
couple weeks and repost on devel if it doesn't get any traction here.

As the subject states, I'm interested in a Java language binding.  I've 
read up as much as I can follow on this list (in particular, the 
Java/JNI sub-thread off of the Ruby discussions), and I've read the 
following documents:

http://www.boost-consulting.com/writing/oopsla04.html
http://www.boost-consulting.com/writing/langbinding.ppt
Extreme_Object_Models_Using_Boost.Python.pdf (from BoostCon)

The last one got me really excited.  This is *exactly* how I like to use 
JNI currently (at my workplace), but I basically do this by hand, along 
with a wrapper library that I created to help with the process.

So I'll get to the point.  I would love to see a Boost.Java, but I know 
that Dave and Daniel have been drawn away from the project by other 
(very important) concerns.  I would like to help in any way that I can. 
  I have a good amount of JNI experience, and I think I'm qualified to 
at least do some of the grunt work.

Now, I understand that doing a langbinding-related binding for Java may 
not be in the cards.  I wasn't even able to find any langbinding source; 
it's been deleted from the Sourceforge tree, and it's not in the SVN 
tree or the Boost File Vault.  Does it exist anywhere?  I'd love to at 
least play with it.

Even if this isn't possible at this time, I think that a Java binding 
would be beneficial to the community.  JNI is notoriously difficult to 
wrangle, and a high-class C++ binding would be appreciated by quite a 
few, especially if it were to come from Boost.  There are other bindings 
out there, but I like the style of interface offered by Boost.Python and 
Luabind, and having something similar (that is, would have a similar 
interface to these others) I view as advantageous.

So, to sum up, I have a few (ok, many) questions:

1.  Is Langbinding something that will return in the near future?  That 
is, is there still interest in pursuing the project?  (I understand that 
this is a hard question to answer.)

2.  If so, I know that it wouldn't be as dynamic as the Python or Lua 
bindings, but is a generated Java source file something that could be 
accepted, at least in the near term?  I know that there were discussions 
about special class loaders and such, but doing that would probably be 
out of my depth (at least right now; Java bytecode is something that I 
intend to study in the future).  However, I envision an interface 
whereby you could query a module for its Java source, or you could maybe 
adapt it to generate a class file on the fly, or maybe even something 
more sophisticated.  It should be possible to abstract something like this.

In fact, now that I think about it, there are methods to define a class 
file from a byte stream in ClassLoader (it's called defineClass, in 
fact).  You could maybe have a native method for a class that's always 
available, temporarily rebind it to an implementation defined in the 
module, and that module calls something that produces the byte array 
full of bytecode necessary for calling the class-definition method.  I'm 
probably getting way ahead of myself, though, and I don't even know if 
that would work.

3.  If Langbinding is more of a long-term return goal, or it has been 
shelved permanently, would creating a Java binding be a worthy effort? 
There are many such efforts out there; does it have a place in Boost? 
If so, should it look like Boost.Python or Luabind?  Should it have its 
own identity?  Would it be advantageous to try to code it to the 
Langbinding interface, so that it could be adapted were Langbinding to 
be revived?

Regardless of the answers to these questions, I think that I'll try to 
at least invent something that aspires to be a Boost.Java, even if I 
don't ever submit it.  :)

Thanks for giving me your attention, I'm looking forward to your replies.

-- 

John Moeller
[email protected]


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