This question might sound silly to all you linux-gurus, but I have been wondering since the first appearence of the iLiad if it would be possible run a Java VM on it.

I think the question is not unreasonable (at least not much I hope), since JavaME runs on almost every new cellphone, which have a lot less horsepwers than our most beloved friend the iLiad.

So, what do you think?

Id like to know that too. I think it should be able to run even the full Java VM, not just the ME version. There are lots of java libraries and apps that could be used on the iLiad.

Sun's Java is not opensource.

You can download the Java Source directly from their site. It's just a matter of license, isn't it?

You can download the Java Source directly from their site. It's just a matter of license, isn't it?
It is a matter of the CEO having control or not. They anounced the opening this year, I havent seen it yet. Or I missed the release. Do you have a link?

Ah Ok I see

http://java.sun.com/j2se/jrl_download.html

but

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/system-configurations.html

does not list ARM.

ARM??? Is that the processor or the OS?

I just see linux listed in there with an intel architechture and the iLiad has a 400MHz INTEL X-Scale Processor.

Sorry I am not really savy in those thigs yet.

I looked around the java site. It mentions ARM as a Licensee. So I guess you can use only J2ME.
http://java.sun.com/javame/licensees/arm.html

You can use Personal Java (essentially Java 1.1) on the Zaurus. It's licensed from a company called Jeode and works pretty good.

Sorry, but that's all chinese to me. Do you mean that you could actually use java on the iLiad or not?

Let's say that means: If Irex would like to use Java on the iLiad they could license the Java Virtual Machine from Jeode. But actually I do not know what you would use it for. I only used it for some small home made applications which I wanted to run on PDA and desktop. But that's rather special...

It means you can use java micro edition, which is a version of java trimmed down to run on portable devices that don't have the full capabilities of a desktop computer. Many cellphones use it, as well as PDAs and the like.
I don't know exactly what's missing with respect with the full version. The windowing system (called SWING) is removed for instance.
So in short, with a proper runtime (which is not included with the iLiad, and don't ask me about how to get one), you could run some java programs but not all of them, certainly not windowed apps.

SuperWaba would be a good choice for the Iliad, I think. Java language. Open source. More powerful than J2ME. Already has a Linux port. www.superwaba.com (http://www.superwaba.com)

It means you can use java micro edition

Not micro edition used on phone but personal edition. The personal edition is essentially Java 1.1 without Swing. But AWT window applications are no problem at all.

Take a look at here:
http://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showforum=79

It's a whole unknown world to me :) I'm a J2EE guy

On the Zaurus (ARM with Linux OS) the Jeode Java runtime environment shows:

java version "J2ME Personal Profile for Zaurus 1.0"
J2ME Personal Profile 1.0 (build 1.0_fcs-b25)
J2ME CDC-HI 1.0_v01

which means more or less in practical terms:
Take a Java 1.1 applet or application and it will run.

ARM??? Is that the processor or the OS?

I just see linux listed in there with an intel architechture and the iLiad has a 400MHz INTEL X-Scale Processor.

Sorry I am not really savy in those thigs yet.

The history of the ARM chip is a adventureous one. As you may know, it was the "Archimedes" family of chips, a british computer system. They evolved into a architecture suitable for portability and particularly for ebooks (I remember an announcement in this sense already in 1995-96). But Apple got controls of the company in the age of development of the Newton, and delayed its general use (it was claimed to be just a chip to be user in postscript printers).

After the Newton fall, the company went into a licenseeing politic. This is, they do not fry the chip, they just let other companies to made it. Intel got the rights to produce it, and created the line XScale for this production. I am not sure if it is property of Intel anymore, btw.

On the Zaurus (ARM with Linux OS) the Jeode Java runtime environment shows:

java version "J2ME Personal Profile for Zaurus 1.0"
J2ME Personal Profile 1.0 (build 1.0_fcs-b25)
J2ME CDC-HI 1.0_v01

which means more or less in practical terms:
Take a Java 1.1 applet or application and it will run.

Yep more or less, it is. But iLiad should license Jeode, as you said.

We could try some of the free java engines, but it seems me a long range project for the first week (hey, I am still "In Transit"). Another interesting alternative could be to port Python.

IIRC the kaffe open source JVM can run on xscale linux (but was not complete last time I checked). You can get something called J9 from IBM for very little money (IIRC even for free while doing development if you download some workshop version from them).
And then there is JamVM: http://jamvm.sourceforge.net/
SableVM has been reportet to work on xscale, too: http://sablevm.org/
There is another VM at the 1.3 language level originally developed by acunia systems called wonka but their site seems to be down and I cannot remember who took over development.
Given enough time and a repaired Iliad I will eventually try these. I had briefly looked at superwaba a long time ago and of what I remember they had their own API which was not compatible with the usual JDK classes, it would be nice if anybody (cervezas?) could look into that and determine if sourcecode would still be reusable.

Please let us know about your progress. It would be really cool to have a working vm on the iLiad.

JamVM for Zaurus (pdaxrom): http://www.oesf.org/forums/index.ph...c=19626&hl=java