[ODE] ODE for Java v0.1 released

[Artur Matos]

Hi Tim,

On Fri, 25 Oct 2002 22:33:31 +0200
Tim Schmidt <tisch@uni-paderborn.de> wrote:

> I am pleased to announce that the first release of 'ODE for Java' is
> available

I just take a look at the source and played a little bit with the
examples. Looks great! Thanks for releasing it.

As you probably remember, I was also working in a java application that
used ODE. For that I developed my own java ODE interface using
swig (http://www.swig.org). SWIG is an utility that helps to
interface C and C++ libraries to a myrad of programming languages,
including Java, Tcl and Python. 

I thing using SWIG in the long run would be more useful to the
ODE community, because it would be easier to interface with other
programming languages besides Java (like Python). Also, because
the mapping from C++ to the other languages is more or less automatic,
it could help with the garbage collection problems that you
mention. Basically, in SWIG you only have to create an "interface"
file (that is like a C/C++ header file), and the utility automatically
creates all the necessary files; Garbage collection is also handled
automatically by it. 

My own SWIG interface file is rather rough and incomplete by now, because
I don't have the necessary SWIG knowledge (i.e. typemaps) to make
a more natural mapping. Also, I have based my SWIG file
in the C++ interface bundled with the O.03 distribution (I haven't
checked the latest CVS versions, so I really don't know how it is
now), and it was rather incomplete, so I had to change it slighty in order
to work. 

Because anyway your interface is working much better that mine, and also
because of the Java3D integration, I think I can
drop my own interface so that we could work together in further developing yours. 
Anyway, because the reasons that I pointed before, I would sugest for this changing
the current ode.core.* package with a SWIG generated one instead, and adjusting
the remaining Java3D integration classes. We could use my own interface file as a
starting point. Also, some changes in the ODE own C++ interface would 
be needed.

Of course, this is only my idea.:) In any case, you can count with me
for helping you developing furthermore the java version. Any suggestions/ideas from 
the rest of the community?

Best regards,

Artur Matos.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Artur Matos
ALife Core Lab (http://www2.create.human.nagoya-u.ac.jp)
Graduate School of Human Informatics | Nagoya University
Email:  amatos@create.human.nagoya-u.ac.jp (Lab)
        arturmatos78@yahoo.com 
---------------------------------------------------------------