JavaDesktopEngine 1.0

JavaDesktopEngines aim is to produce a piece of software that is at the same time:
Shared virtual machine
It allows to launch different java programs inside the same VM. The VM will always be alive, so no more startup overhead and less memory used.
It uses our JDSVM(Java Desktop Shared Virtual Machine), which in turn is based on Javagroups great Echidna Project
Xml Rpc local server
This way it is possible for programs, even written in languages different from java, to access "services" exposed by the engine.
Plugin host
It has been built with a pluggable architecture in mind, so that it is possible to develop new "services" for the engine.
Linux/Windows service (next release)
It is run as a service, so that its "services" will always be available for other programs.
For those of us who make heavy use of java tools its always been quite frustrating to have to open lots of resource eager VMs just to launch very useful but simple programs. Moreover, VM starting for simple utilities is a real waste of time.
Weve all appreciated the difference when launching a compilation from inside an IDE. In this case javac is launched as a process inside an already active VM, and the difference is evident.
JDE in the beginning was born to try to address these problems. Having an always active VM where it is possible to launch processes in, means faster process start and less resources used. A lot of time is saved by from not loading again and again the VM.
Theres nothing new in this. Some very good related projects are alive and kicking on the net, some of them focusing on a complete Java desktop enviroment, some on just a shared VM. JDE positions itself a bit differently, as it can be seen as a java engine exposing pluggable services (shared VM being just one of these).
There are several approaches to implementing a shared VM, all of them with pros and cons. Weve chosen to use the great code from the Echidna Project for now.
The entrypoint of JDE is an XML-RPC server accepting calls for services. Everything needed from JDE can be obtained by making a call to it.
The main service exposed by JDE is obviously the java process launching one. By making a call, it is possible to launch a java process insisde the VM. Having an XML-RPC server allows us to use any language with xmlrpc capabilities to launch java programs. The package includes a simple python script, that can be easily used as launcher (see our simple tutorial for details).
Included is also a "Manager", a simple swing application with active process listing and process launching capabilities.
Hopefully, this one will evolve as far as there will be more services in JDE to be the reference manager for the engine.
Included plugins:
1) Java process Launcher. The one this project was started for. You can launch java processes inside the living VM.
2) Scripting engine. Via a simple xmlrpc call you can launch a script on the engine and get back results. The nice thing, as usual, is that being xmlrpc based, you can use it as a service called by anything written in any language. Currently supported scripting language is BeanShell. More will be available soon via BSF.
3) Fast editor Based on jEdit Syntax Package 2.2.1, a simple, fast and useful editor with only some of the nice features jEdit has got us used to.
Enhancements:
- This release should be a bit more robust when killing processes that make use of System.exit(0) without "dispose()".
- An icon for the GUI manager has been added, as well as a bat file for Windows systems.