A native method is a Java method (either an instance
method or a class method) whose implementation is written in
another programming language such as C. The lessons in this
trail show you how to integrate native methods into your Java
code.
Note that, currently, the Java language only provides
a mechanism for integrating C code into Java programs; thus the
lessons on this trail focus on writing native methods in C.
WARNING! The programming interface for implementing
native methods in Java is under construction. Use these interfaces
at your own risk and in full knowledge that they will change in future
releases of Java. The examples and information contained here reflect
the JDK1.0 release.
Step By Step
walks you step by step through a simple example (the "Hello World!" of
native methods) to illustrate how to write, compile and run a Java program
with native methods.
Implementing Native Methods
shows you how to implement both the Java side and the C side of a native
method. This lesson includes information about passing arguments of various
data types into a native method and returning values of various data types
from a native method. This lesson also describes many useful functions that
your native method can use to access Java objects and their members, create
Java objects, throw exceptions, and more.
