JAVA IMPLEMENTATION OF LUA LANGUAGE
README FOR RELEASE 1.0.1
David Jones, Ravenbrook Limited drj@ravenbrook.com
$Date: 2009/12/10 $
CONTENTS
This is release 1.0.1 of the Java Implementation of Lua Language (Jill). Jill was originally written by Ravenbrook Limited under contract, became the property of Nokia Corporation, and is now released under an open source license, and is managed by Ravenbrook Limited.
Jill provides an implementation of the Lua language that runs in Java Mobile Edition environments. It is intended to run in an environment that supports CLDC 1.1 and MIDP 2.0. Currently no features of MIDP 2.0 are used in the core software (test harnesses and examples do use MIDP 2.0 features).
The readership of this document is anyone who intends to use the Jill software.
A Jill release consists of a hierarchy of directories and files, generally supplied as a .zip file.
Here's a brief overview of its contents (not comprehensive):
jill-X.Y.Z/ - top level directory. readme.txt - this file. build.xml - Apache Ant build file. See ant -projecthelp. code/ - source code for Jill. design/ - design documentation, mostly in HTML. design/arch/ - Architecture lib/ - imported libraries used in building. manual/ - User's Manual. test/ - All test code and materials.
In addition various Ant build targets will populate the following directories:
bin/ - Installable binaries. .cod and .jar files. compiled/ - Results of compiling code/ (.class files). javadoc/ - Public documentation for users. javadoc-private/ - Private documentation for maintainers. prejar/ - Staging area for building jars. preverified/ - Results of preverification (.class files). test-compiled/ - Results of compiling test/ . test-compiled-se/ - Compiled test files that are JSE only. test-preverified/ - Results of preverifying test-compiled/ .
3.1 Prerequisites
Prerequisities are discussed a bit more thoroughly in the build documentation provided with this release in manual/build/.
You'll need a PC runnings Windows XP (other operating systems may work but are not supported).
You'll need a JDK from Sun. Either 1.4.2 or 1.5.0 (note that the BlackBerry JDE 4.1 requires Sun's JDK 1.5.0).
You'll need Apache Ant.
You'll need RIM's BlackBerry JDE if you intend to use a BlackBerry device or its emulator.
3.2 Building
Apache ant is used to encapsulate the build procedure. See "ant -projecthelp" for the documented targets. More documentation is available in manual/build/.
To install test software onto a USB-connected BlackBerry, go:
ant load
This compiles the Jill sources (ant compile), preverifies and packages them into a .jar file (ant jar), converts that to RIM's .cod format (ant cod), and downloads the .cod file onto an attached device (ant load).
Currently the "ant load" target builds the METestMIDlet which is a midlet that runs the same set of tests that "ant test" runs; all of these should run on JME; "ant load" also builds JiliShell which is an interactive interpreter.
If you wish to incorporate Jill into your own software then you'll have to adapt the build procedure.
Jill was originally developed by Ravenbrook Limited in 2006 under contract to another company. Later that year that company went into receivership, and the intellectual property comprising Jill was acquired by Nokia Corporation. In 2009 Ravenbrook Limited realised that Nokia Corporation might own the intellectual property in Jill, and we began negotiating with them to open source it. Nokia Corporation have generously agreed to make the Jill code open source, and are happy to have Ravenbrook manage it.
RELEASE 1.0
First open source release.
In order to prepare a release as economically as possible, it hasn't been possible to fully redact all the code and documentation. Thus there remain references to: Intuwave (the original client); Ravenbrook (the original implementors); "jobs" (a job in Ravenbrook's Perforce repository used to track bugs / feature requests); "rfe" (Intuwave's way of tracking bugs / feature requests); various other internal Ravenbrook documents that may not be publicly available.
Some parts of the software are suffering from a bit of neglect, and dust bunnies have accumulated in some corners.
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