Comment Re:JNI is an API, not a platform... (Score 3, Informative) 226
Yes, this is corrrect. The jni allows you to declare "native" methods for Java. This allows you to do stuff like connect to shared memory, process UNIX signals, and do other low-level operations that are platform specific.
So, you do have to port it, but it's there if you really, really need to do something in C that you can't do in Java.
As for normal programmers not using it, that's not true. I use the JNI for integrating java with a large software package that's written in C, and runs on AIX or Linux. I'm a regular programmer. It's really not that difficult, just a little different.
In my case, it's allowed me to write Java add on's to a system that's written in C. This makes the delopment faster, the GUI's prettier, and the interface is the only C code to manage.
So, you do have to port it, but it's there if you really, really need to do something in C that you can't do in Java.
As for normal programmers not using it, that's not true. I use the JNI for integrating java with a large software package that's written in C, and runs on AIX or Linux. I'm a regular programmer. It's really not that difficult, just a little different.
In my case, it's allowed me to write Java add on's to a system that's written in C. This makes the delopment faster, the GUI's prettier, and the interface is the only C code to manage.
