From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jon Seymour Subject: Re: Core and Not-So Core Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 12:09:49 +1000 Message-ID: <2cfc4032050510190950bba995@mail.gmail.com> References: <2cfc40320505100800426d38ca@mail.gmail.com> <1115739511.16187.432.camel@hades.cambridge.redhat.com> <2cfc4032050510092238259b63@mail.gmail.com> <1115744609.16187.455.camel@hades.cambridge.redhat.com> <2cfc403205051010151304d88a@mail.gmail.com> <2cfc4032050510101553d391b2@mail.gmail.com> Reply-To: jon@blackcubes.dyndns.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Cc: Git Mailing List X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Wed May 11 04:02:26 2005 Return-path: Received: from vger.kernel.org ([12.107.209.244]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DVgYK-000146-7t for gcvg-git@gmane.org; Wed, 11 May 2005 04:02:24 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261874AbVEKCJw (ORCPT ); Tue, 10 May 2005 22:09:52 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261881AbVEKCJw (ORCPT ); Tue, 10 May 2005 22:09:52 -0400 Received: from rproxy.gmail.com ([64.233.170.200]:15726 "EHLO rproxy.gmail.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261874AbVEKCJt convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Tue, 10 May 2005 22:09:49 -0400 Received: by rproxy.gmail.com with SMTP id j1so27698rnf for ; Tue, 10 May 2005 19:09:49 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:reply-to:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=ka7lAFEmO4l2HRdh7IeZvDnM1J0ZhPmyYfmp5v1AUT8iMcHyc0MrkGOduDn3j4YGjsK1FwMxQyzRuo/0U2/+6DnkBFapZV+dDoJIF3ZqqJdoyQm+6JFAN7qs6UzXtvfJu+uWjteE2RVUC4eGs8ECAWX+CJwMGdy64XGfY1DF+RA= Received: by 10.38.97.47 with SMTP id u47mr146970rnb; Tue, 10 May 2005 19:09:49 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.38.104.59 with HTTP; Tue, 10 May 2005 19:09:49 -0700 (PDT) To: Rik van Riel In-Reply-To: Content-Disposition: inline Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org On 5/11/05, Rik van Riel wrote: > On Wed, 11 May 2005, Jon Seymour wrote: > > > I did consider wrapping it - I really did. But after thinking about it > > for a couple of weeks I eventually came to the conclusion it would be a > > sub-optimal solution. > > > So, if I want a stable foundation to build my stuff on, basing it on > > the output of the C tools would be a huge mistake. > > Can Java use a library that's implemented in C, like Python > and Perl can? If that is the case, the C implementation of > git simply needs the ability to be called as a library and > you can implement Java bindings for it. > It can in principle, yes. This is the so-called Java-Native-Interface (JNI). I think in the longer term it would make sense to write a JNI layer but the GIT source code is probably a little too unstable for that now. What needs to happen first, I think, is that a solid and stable C API (e.g. a libgit) be proposed and developed. One outcome of the work I am doing (a long time away, probably will never happen) might eventually be to propose an C API for GIT based, in part, on the prototyping work I do in Java. However, I suspect its Java-tainted heritage would mean instant death to it for purely dogmatic reasons so I think it I'll leave it to others to propose a C-API and then write a JNI wrapper for that when/if it ever happens. > That should also make it easier to create front-ends in > other languages... > Agreed. jon.