ANN: Release 0.1 of Haskell/Java VM Bridge

[Ashley Yakeley]

The first release, 0.1, of Haskell/Java VM Bridge is now available.

Haskell/Java VM Bridge allows Haskell programs access to the Java Virtual 
Machine. Features include:

    * On-the-fly creation of Java classes with Haskell functions
      for methods.

    * Lifted monads which do all the necessary JNI preloading and
      'env'-pointer variable handling for you. These can be 
      automatically generated via a tool (MakeJVMModule).

    * Integration of garbage collectors, type-class based 
      overloading, and a tool (MakeClassModule) which uses Java 
      reflection etc. to generate a Haskell module etc., etc. 

It is, however, only available for Unix and works only with GHC.

This release should be 'beta' quality, but has undergone little testing.

You will need:

  An x86 machine running some form of Unix;

  GHC 5.02 or later;

  The appropriate JVM, installed in the appropriate place:

 		 - IBM JDK/JRE 1.3 for x86, installed in /usr/lib/ibm-java/IBMJava2-13/

 		 - Blackdown Port of Sun's JRE 1.3/Sun JDK 1.3 for x86, installed in 
      /usr/lib/j2sdk1.3/ and /usr/lib/j2re1.3/

No documentation is currently available, sorry. Two examples have been 
included: a trivial "hello world" program, and a program that shows a 
Java Frame containing an instance of a Haskell-defined subclass of Canvas 
that has a Haskell 'paint' method that draws an oval. You should be able 
to figure out most of it from that... and of course the source is 
available from SourceForge CVS.

Be sure to download the correct .tar.gz file for your Java VM. Simple 
installation instructions are included in the file.

<http://semantic.org/jvm-bridge/haskell-jvm-bridge-1_3.IBM.classic-0.1.i686
.tar.gz>
<http://semantic.org/jvm-bridge/haskell-jvm-bridge-1_3.Blackdown.classic.na
tive_threads-0.1.i686.tar.gz>
SourceForge's file release system is currently broken. When it's fixed, 
I'll put it there too.

Haskell/JVM Bridge and source code is licensed under the GNU Lesser GPL.

<http://sourceforge.net/projects/jvm-bridge/>

I hope to build an Darwin/OS X version just as soon as there's a port of 
GHC 5.02 with a working createAdjustor.

-- 
Ashley Yakeley, Seattle WA