CODEWITHSUNDEEP
java
Ankur
Ankur

Reputation: 51110

Is it worth switching to IBM Jikes (java) compiler

I just read in some Liferay documentation that IBM's Jikes (java) compiler is faster and more descriptive with compile time errors.

I would like to know whether the community agrees, and whether the switch makes any noticeable improvement in your productivity.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1295

Answers (4)

Francis
Francis

Reputation: 12018

If you are using ant as build system, you can easily switch between Jikes and javac; and then I'd suggest you to try jikes - it's really amazing fast.

Otherwise, you should really consider again because it's not always compatible with your version of JDK and may create extra issue.

Upvotes: 1

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen
Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen

Reputation: 75406

Jikes does not support the new Java 5 things, so it is not an option for projects using these facilities.

The best alternative to javac these days is in my opinion the Eclipse compiler which is available in a stand-alone version. Speed (which is jikes primary force) is less an issue these days.

EDIT: Jikes support "incremental compiling" which may be very interesting in environments where development with a full-size IDE is not an option.

Upvotes: 4

Tom Hawtin - tackline
Tom Hawtin - tackline

Reputation: 147164

It's worthing noting that the JDK7 compiler has some improvements in the descriptiveness of errors.

Upvotes: 0

skaffman
skaffman

Reputation: 403581

Jikes was very compelling in the JDK 1.3 days when the javac compiler was awe-inspiringly slow. In comparison, jikes was blindingly fast. Increasingly, however, the speed improvement is becoming less noticeable, to the point where I personally wouldn't bother any more.

Upvotes: 4

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