After GCC Rust merges with Modula-2 front end, developers want to bring back GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) Java front-end,GCJ. Independent developer Max Downey Twiss has been working on bringing the GCJ back with various fixes.

As early as 2016, the GCC compiler dropped support for Java/GCJ because no one was maintaining it. GCC Java support was dropped due to lack of maintenance and did not attract much attention as there were already many free software Java implementations.

according tointroduce, given that there are now other Java bytecode compilers and a free Java runtime library, Max’s main focus is on making GCJ a free Java machine code compiler. He wants to replace Classpath with OpenJDK and focus on GCJ for machine code.

We now have many puzzle pieces. We have a large collection of free Java bytecode compilers, as well as free runtime libraries. The only thing missing is a free machine code compiler, which GCJ was and still is. I plan to replace Classpath with OpenJDK and double down on GCJ’s machine code, dropping bytecode and interpreted support.

However, the current situation is that the patch series submitted by Max is due to the regression caused by 1dedc12d186a110854537e1279b4e6c29f2df35a, which caused the last link to fail. And he has been unable to solve the problem, but he decided to release this patch series to get feedback and help.

Besides trying to get GCJ on track, Max also wants to take care of its maintenanceand keep at least the same as the previously removed Java front endSimilar functional levels.

More details can be viewed gcc-patches.