jLinux - Development Tools
What it is: A Java compiler
Pros: Fast, strict adherence to Java standard, autogen dependancies, open source, Emacs support.
Cons: Not blessed by Sun.
What it is: An embeddable Java source interpreter with object scripting language features.
Pros: Fanstastic for prototyping, open source, intergrated with JDE.
Cons:Arbitrary interface support requires JDK 1.3.
What it is: A replacement for jar
Pros: Much faster than jar, open source.
Cons: Doesn't support archive updating, manifest file support not 100% complete (?).
What they are: Support for Tcl on Java and Java support for Tcl respectively
Pros: If you know Tcl, this combines the power of Java with the ease of use and rapid development of a scripting language. Supports dynamically allocating Java objects and invoke Java methods on them from inside the Tcl Interpreter. Tcl Blend lets you write Tcl extensions in Java. Open source.
Cons: Jacl slower than native implementation. Jacl is sensitive to bugs in JVMs typically found in browsers. Tcl Blend won't work with MS VM's missing JNI support.
What it is: Python on Java
Pros: Same as with Jacl, but with Python. Python's OO nature makes Java integration more powerful.
Cons: Slower than native implementation
What it is: Perl5 regexp support for Java
Pros: Regular Expressions in Java --enough said!!! Open source.
Cons: Regexp support will be standard in JDK 1.4.
What it is: NFA Regular expression support
Pros: BSD-license. Syntax can emulate many common tools including sed, awk & perl.
Cons: Missing some Perl5 regexp features (mostly look aheads)
What it is: Programmer's Editor written in Java
Pros: Auto indent. Open source. Plug-in architecture extends capabilities much as elisp extends Emacs --almost to the point where it's an IDE.
Cons: Plug-ins are still relatively immature. Requires Java 1.1x and Swing 1.1.x to run (or Java2). Tends to induce segfaults in older Linux Java2 VM's.