SubstrateVM

[Johan Vos]

Having SubstrateVM for iOS would be great.

There are a number of things though that I think should be addressed as
well:
* Java 9: at this moment it seems SubstrateVM requires a Java 8 VM
* JNI
* Reflection

I am impressed by how easy it was to compile HelloWorld and embed it in a
single executable on Linux. I am currently looking into running a JavaFX
application, as that would be the real-world test. That doesn't work out of
the box of course, and I'm looking at how much work it would be.

All of this doesn't mean we should rule out hotspot of course. Again using
a real-world JavaFX application as a testcase, the current situation is the
following:
* a relative complex JavaFX application runs using the native code in the
jdk directory from openjdk/mobile/dev, with classes from that same
directory compiled using Gluon VM AOT, and statically linked with Gluon
VM's VM (boson)
* that same application also runs on hotspot with the zero interpreter, but
of course much slower.

For OpenJDK Mobile, I see 2 big options moving forward:
* use something like jaotc to compile all classes and dependencies aot, and
have hotspot use the compiled methods
* bring SubstrateVM at the same level as the current openjdk/mobile/dev
(which means support for Java 9, JNI and reflection).

- Johan


On Sat, Jan 27, 2018 at 10:18 AM Jaroslav Tulach <jaroslav.tulach at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dne pátek 26. ledna 2018 16:17:46 CET, Bob Vandette napsal(a):
> > I’m a big fan of the SubstrateVM work that Oracle Labs is doing.
>
> Glad to hear that Bob! I'd be also delighted to see SubstrateVM support for
> iOS. It would be a great PR for our work.
>
> According to our boss, it should be a simple research project for an
> intern or
> a university student to turn the support for  AARCH64 on, given the fact
> that
> Graal already has the support.
> -jt
>
>