Re: Kawa Compilation

[Nigel Dolby <nigel_dolby at acm dot org>]

Per,

Thanks for the e-mail; your lack of knowledge about IE and Applets is 
probably matched by mine about Unix, GNU and CVS, but perhaps we can put 
together something that spans the divide for anyone else who needs it, 
so let me start with some basics. (I should point out that, in the same 
way that Richard Stallman shows little interest in mastering Windows, 
becoming an expert on Unix is not on my agenda; but I can usually follow 
a set of instructions if they are complete and specific enough, and I 
have a system that runs Xandros Linux which I use in the same way as I 
do Windows. I realize that my questions are probably elementary and have 
obvious answers if you are familiar with the Unix world, but I can 
assure you that the answers are not obvious if you don't know - or wish 
to know - about that world.)

What is the significance of the fact that the current CVS archives has 
fixed the problem I described in my last e-mail, and what might I do 
about that? Is there a new Kawa binary I could download, and where? Or 
would I have to build a new Kawa for myself? If I have to build it, I 
could do that - rather slowly - under Linux, given precise enough 
instructions (Xandros provides command prompt access through bash). Once 
built, Kawa appears to port directly from Linux to Windows. When I read 
the instructions on "Installing and using the source distribution" in 
the Kawa documentation all sorts of questions come to mind. "In your 
build directory": I don't currently have a build directory (for 
anything); what is a good choice for this - some subdirectory under my 
home directory? - or must it be a system-level directory? (I am the only 
user of my systems.) What is $PREFIX and how does it get set? Do I need 
the --enable-kawa-frontend flag if I want to mark, copy and paste in the 
Kawa window (I do)? Do I need --with-swing if I intend to use Swing even 
without JEmacs (again, I do)? If all the needed details are already 
explicitly documented, perhaps you could point me to the appropriate 
location, otherwise, if it is necessary to do a build, a good approach 
might be if you were to publish or send me exactly the setup and 
commands used to build the distributed binary version of Kawa, since 
this provides functionality adequate for what I am currently doing.

On a different but related subject, I decided I could explore some 
interface questions directly in Kawa, without needing to use an Applet, 
and I entered and ran the code below (adapted from The Definitive Guide 
to Java Swing by John Zukowski - ISBN 1-59059-447-9 - pp. 19-22). The 
code just creates a new window with a button that causes printing in the 
Kawa window when pressed, but it does it on a new thread. The code runs 
fine (once you discover that the method signature includes the return 
value type, which is not true in Common Lisp), but when I close the 
window it creates on its new thread, Kawa closes too. If you run the 
code on the Kawa thread that also happens, which is fair enough, but I 
think I would have expected the Kawa window to remain open in the 
separate thread case.

Thanks for all your help - Nigel Dolby.

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(define-simple-class <AnActionListener> (<java.awt.event.ActionListener>)
 ((actionPerformed (actionEvent :: <java.awt.event.ActionEvent>)) <void>
  (format #t "~%I was selected~!")))

(define-simple-class <ARunnable> (<java.lang.Runnable>)
 ((run) <void>
  (let ((frame (make <javax.swing.JFrame> "Button Sample"))
         (button (make <javax.swing.JButton> "Select Me"))
         (actionListener (make <AnActionListener>)))
    (invoke frame 'setDefaultCloseOperation
        (static-field <javax.swing.JFrame> 'EXIT_ON_CLOSE))
    (invoke button 'addActionListener actionListener)
    (invoke frame 'add button (static-field <java.awt.BorderLayout> 
'SOUTH))
    (invoke frame 'setSize 300 100)
    (invoke frame 'setVisible #t)
    )))

(define ButtonSample
 (lambda ()
   (let ((runner (make <ARunnable>)))
     (invoke-static <java.awt.EventQueue> 'invokeLater runner))))

[Evaluate (ButtonSample) in the Kawa window.]