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Subject:
From:
Shayne Flint <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Shayne Flint <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 30 Jun 1998 23:17:51 +1000
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text/plain
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text/plain (46 lines)
Mike Brenner wrote:

> Nasser > ... Java has a rich set of APIs that come with the JDK and
>        > very good API documentation
>
> Hear Hear!
>
> But beware, most of those APIs do not work (some by design and most by bugs)
> on either Netscape, Microsoft Explorer, Mosaic, or Paladin. There is
> quite a run-in period for the J 1.1 APIs, for example. Sun is trying
> to make plug-ins available for the most common browsers for the Java
> Byte Machine with the 1.1 APIs, but it is not all there yet.
>
> Nasser > ... what I think Ada needs is:
>        >   - More API's
>        >   - more APIs and more APIs.
>
> Hear Hear!
>
> A good question is why, with recent publications of C, C++, Java, and Ada
> standards, are the APIs for these languages different? Why, for example,
> did they not coordinate and come up with a single API that does the same
> things in all languages?
>
> Nasser > ... If I want to find if a file is in a directory, I call a method ...
>
> Yes, the limitations on text_io and lack of directory management was
> put in to implement some kind of least common denominator file system
> that respected DEC's desire for every user of VMS to go through the
> Record Manager. It was a design error for DEC to desire every user of
> VMS to go through the Record Manager, and it was a design error for
> Ada to attempt to support files that are something other than a bunch
> of bytes. URLs were many years old and could have been the basis of
> the same directory accessing system that works on the web. That
> system has been adapted to every operating system capable of being
> put onto a network. Other operating systems could do a very small
> translation of the URL format in their native directory system.
>
> Nasser > ... I dont think the Ada to Java hooks will take care of this ...
>
> What hooks are being referred to? The Ada source code does not hook
> into Java, it directly converts to Ada byte code.

Take a look at http://www.ainslie-software.com/AdaJNI for a toolset that allows you
to use any Java API with native Ada compilers.

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