Communicator 3000 MPE/iX Release 6.0 (Platform Software Release C.60.00) (30216-90269)

242 Chapter 10
Technical Articles
Developer’s Kit for Java/iX
Developer’s Kit for Java/iX
by Mike Yawn
Commercial Systems Division
Background
The Java development environment (including compiler, runtime, and
class libraries) was first ported to MPE in 1996, and various versions
have been available as unsupported freeware since that time.
Beginning with MPE/iX 6.0, a version of Java is now bundled with the
MPE operating system.
Java/iX for the HP 3000 was initially developed as an unsupported
“freeware” product by engineers within Hewlett-Packard. With the
release of MPE/iX version 6.0, the current Java/iX version is being
bundled into FOS as the first step in turning Java/iX into a fully
supported HP product. While HP is committed to providing support for
Java in MPE/iX, the current release contains a few limitations that you
should be aware of:
• This first release of Java/iX will be supported by the Response
Center on a “best effort” basis.
• Performance has been a secondary concern to reliability in our
engineering efforts up to this point. While Java/iX includes HP’s own
Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler which allows Java programs to be
converted into native PA-RISC code at runtime, customers may find
that the overall performance for some Java applications will be less
at this time than on other platforms.
• This release of Java/iX does not pass 100% of the Java Compatibility
Kit test suite, which prevents it from being officially labeled as ‘Java
Compatible’ at this time.
• Sun is developing a functionality specification for Java running on
server systems such as the HP 3000. It is likely that we will target
this specification for the functionality to be included in future
releases of Java/iX. Thus it is possible that some of the Java APIs
which are not normally used in server-side Java programs, but
which are included in the current Java/iX release, may not be
supported in future versions.
Work is actively being done to address these issues.
Installing or Updating Java
If you have not downloaded and installed any version of Java from the
JAZZ web server or an Interex freeware tape, then you can safely
install the version of Java included with this release of MPE/iX. If you
have installed another version of Java, you should check to see whether