Jikes 1.22 included in Robocode really needs to be replaced

[Flemming N. Larsen (GMail)]

Hi guys,

 

Robocoders is getting more and more errors when using Jikes, where the last update was made in 2005. I want to replace Jikes soon with a better alternative.

(Look here for some fast info about Jikes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jikes)

 

The natural replacement for Jikes is the GNU Compiler for Java (GCJ) (info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Compiler_for_Java), which is a free and independent Java implementation, like Jikes is (or rather was).

 

My suggestion is that we do one of the following:

 

A) Remove Jikes completely, don't include a compiler, and tell people to download one like e.g. Sun's JDK or GCJ. Bad, as people are used to Robocode being selfcontained (and Jikes), i.e. it contains everything in order to edit, compile, and package a robot.

B) Replace Jikes with the GCJ (or some other free Java compiler). Good as we are still selfcontained, bad as people used to Jikes must use another compiler now.

C) Do nothing about it. Very bad, as more and more people will run into trouble, and I (we) will have to repeat myself over and over again (e.g. on the Robocode's Help Forum on SF or the Robocode Yahoo Group) that they should not use Jikes anymore, which is included in Robocode.

 

As I see it, we really need to fix the problem with Jikes soon, and we should replace Jikes with another compiler like the GCJ that is "still alive" and is updated, i.e. option B. It should be able to compile for the individual platform like Jikes is.

 

What do you guys think. Do you have a better solution or another view?

 

Best regards,

- Flemming

[Nat Pavasant]

For me, I chose A. Just changing the requirement to JDK and that
should not be a problem. Note that not everyone download only JRE.
Many of them download a full JDK.

But I think you should leave Jikes in place, whether include GCJ or
not, because it's speed and small codesize. I sometimes use it to
reduce the codesize of the robot. Just tell user that this is
deprecated and they should not use this one. Or maybe don't install
automatically unless user want it.

By the way, GCJ is interesting, as long as it is as fast as Jikes.
Jikes is crazy fast. But, at last, does GCJ support Java 2D API? The
status page of GCJ tell that java.awt isn't complete!

2009/2/27 Flemming N. Larsen (GMail) <flemming...@gmail.com>:

--
Nat

[Pavel Šavara]

> A) Remove Jikes completely, don't include a compiler, and tell people to
> download one like e.g. Sun's JDK or GCJ. Bad, as people are used to Robocode
> being selfcontained (and Jikes), i.e. it contains everything in order to
> edit, compile, and package a robot.

I prefer this one
We could try to implement automatic download in start instalation of JDK.

> B) Replace Jikes with the GCJ (or some other free Java compiler). Good as we
> are still selfcontained, bad as people used to Jikes must use another
> compiler now.

Last news from GCJ is from March 30, 2007. Live ? I don't think so.
Also GNU classpath they use seems to be poor at the moment.

> C) Do nothing about it. Very bad, as more and more people will run into
> trouble, and I (we) will have to repeat myself over and over again (e.g. on
> the Robocode's Help Forum on SF or the Robocode Yahoo Group) that they
> should not use Jikes anymore, which is included in Robocode.

I think we should not try to solve all problems people have. Rather we
should encourage them to start using real development tools as soon as
possible. I would rather invest the time in Eclipse integration.

Pavel

[Flemming N. Larsen]

We could release Robocode without a compiler, i.e. without Jikes, and then point people to Sun's JDK.

Then, if people want to have compact robots or use a fast compiler etc., they could use any other compiler of their choice, as long as the robot package is either made by Robocode or identical to how Robocode does it. :-)  We could romove Jikes, and then make it possible to set up Robocode to use another compiler thru the compiler settings. We already have this part in Robocode. We just need to prepare it for any compiler.

 

I don't like continuing with Jikes, as most people can't get it up and running (e.g. on Ubuntu / Linux, where Jikes is compiled before it can be used), and lots of people can't compile their robots correctly with Jikes. So I prefer to kick it.

And yes... GCJ might not be a good choice after all.

 

Best,

- Flemming

2009/2/27 Nat Pavasant <nat...@gmail.com>

--
- Flemming N. Larsen

[Flemming N. Larsen]

Okay. So it seems like we are going for A) Remove Jikes completely, and point to e.g. the Sun JDK. :-)

> We could try to implement automatic download in start instalation of JDK.

That might be possible. :-)

Yes, GCJ does not seems to be alive after all.

>I think we should not try to solve all problems people have. Rather we
>should encourage them to start using real development tools as soon as
>possible.

That is exactly what I am doing now. But when a lot of people reports problems with Jikes, I think we need to take action soon. ;-)
I am pointing people to Sun's JDK, especially for Windows and Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora and similar).

>I would rather invest the time in Eclipse integration.

You got a very good point here Pavel. I should like to get started with this part soon. Perhaps when we get rid of the highest priority feature requests? :-)

I think I will add it as FR soon. ;-)

Best,
- Flemming

2009/2/27 Pavel Šavara <pavel....@gmail.com>