Chelsie Kancharana

Why would you want to integrate C++ code into a Java program in the first place? After all, the Java language was created, in part, to address some of the shortcomings of C++. Actually, there are several reasons why you might want to integrate C++ with Java:

If you take the plunge and decide to integrate Java and C++, you do give up some of the important advantages of a Java-only application. Here are the downsides:

As you can see, integrating Java and C++ is not for the faint of heart! However, if you wish to proceed, read on.

We'll start with a simple example showing how to call C++ methods from Java. We'll then extend this example to show how to support the observer pattern. The observer pattern, in addition to being one of the cornerstones of object-oriented programming, serves as a nice example of the more involved aspects of integrating C++ and Java code. We'll then build a small program to test our Java-wrapped C++ object, and we'll end with a discussion of future directions for Java.

What's so hard about integrating Java and C++, you ask? After all, SunSoft's Java Tutorial has a section on "Integrating Native Methods into Java Programs" (see Resources). As we'll see, this is adequate for calling C++ methods from Java, but it doesn't give us enough to call Java methods from C++. To do that, we'll need to do a little more work.

As an example, we'll take a simple C++ class that we'd like to use from within Java. We'll assume that this class already exists and that we're not allowed to change it. This class is called "C++::NumberList" (for clarity, I'll prefix all C++ class names with "C++::"). This class implements a simple list of numbers, with methods to add a number to the list, query the size of the list, and get an element from the list. We'll make a Java class whose job it is to represent the C++ class. This Java class, which we'll call NumberListProxy, will have the same three methods, but the implementation of these methods will be to call the C++ equivalents. This is pictured in the following object modeling technique (OMT) diagram:

A Java instance of NumberListProxy needs to hold onto a reference to the corresponding C++ instance of NumberList. This is easy enough, if slightly non-portable: If we're on a platform with 32-bit pointers, we can simply store this pointer in an int; if we're on a platform that uses 64-bit pointers (or we think we might be in the near future), we can store it in a long. The actual code for NumberListProxy is straightforward, if somewhat messy. It uses the mechanisms from the "Integrating Native Methods into Java Programs" section of SunSoft's Java Tutorial.

A first cut at the Java class looks like this:

The static section is run when the class is loaded. System.loadLibrary() loads the named shared library, which in our case contains the compiled version of C++::NumberList. Under Solaris, it will expect to find the shared library "libNumberList.so" somewhere in the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Shared library naming conventions may differ in other operating systems.

Most of the methods in this class are declared as "native." This means that we will provide a C function to implement them. To write the C functions, we run javah twice, first as "javah NumberListProxy," then as "javah -stubs NumberListProxy." This automatically generates some "glue" code needed for the Java runtime (which it puts in NumberListProxy.c) and generates declarations for the C functions that we are to implement (in NumberListProxy.h).

I chose to implement these functions in a file called NumberListProxyImpl.cc. It begins with some typical #include directives:

is part of the JDK, and includes a number of important system declarations. NumberListProxy.h was generated for us by javah, and includes declarations of the C functions we're about to write. NumberList.h contains the declaration of the C++ class NumberList.

In the NumberListProxy constructor, we call the native method initCppSide(). This method must find or create the C++ object we want to represent. For the purposes of this article, I'll just heap-allocate a new C++ object, although in general we might instead want to link our proxy to a C++ object that was created elsewhere. The implementation of our native method looks like this:

As described in the Java Tutorial, we're passed a "handle" to the Java NumberListProxy object. Our method creates a new C++ object, then attaches it to the numberListPtr_ data member of the Java object.

Now on to the interesting methods. These methods recover a pointer to the C++ object (from the numberListPtr_ data member), then invoke the desired C++ function:

The function names (NumberListProxy_addNumber, and the rest) are determined for us by javah. For more information on this, the types of arguments sent to the function, the unhand() macro, and other details of Java's support for native C functions, please refer to the Java Tutorial.

While this "glue" is somewhat tedious to write, it's fairly straightforward and works well. But what happens when we want to call Java from C++?

Before delving into how to call Java methods from C++, let me explain why this can be necessary. In the diagram I showed earlier, I didn't present the whole story of the C++ class. A more complete picture of the C++ class is shown below:

As you can see, we're dealing with an observable number list. This number list might be modified from many places (from NumberListProxy, or from any C++ object that has a reference to our C++::NumberList object). NumberListProxy is supposed to faithfully represent all of the behavior of C++::NumberList; this should include notifying Java observers when the number list changes. In other words, NumberListProxy needs to be a subclass of java.util.Observable, as pictured here:

It's easy enough to make NumberListProxy a subclass of java.util.Observable, but how does it get notified? Who will call setChanged() and notifyObservers() when C++::NumberList changes? To do this, we'll need a helper class on the C++ side. Luckily, this one helper class will work with any Java observable. This helper class needs to be a subclass of C++::Observer, so it can register with C++::NumberList. When the number list changes, our helper class' update() method will be called. The implementation of our update() method will be to call setChanged() and notifyObservers() on the Java proxy object. This is pictured in OMT:

Before going into the implementation of C++::JavaObservableProxy, let me mention some of the other changes.

NumberListProxy has a new data member: javaProxyPtr_. This is a pointer to the instance of C++JavaObservableProxy. We'll need this later when we discuss object destruction. The only other change to our existing code is a change to our C function NumberListProxy_initCppSide(). It now looks like this:

Note that we cast javaObj to a pointer to an HObservable. This is OK, because we know that NumberListProxy is a subclass of Observable. The only other change is that we now create a C++::JavaObservableProxy instance and maintain a reference to it. C++::JavaObservableProxy will be written so that it notifies any Java Observable when it detects an update, which is why we needed to cast HNumberListProxy* to HObservable*.

Given the background so far, it may seem that we just need to implement C++::JavaObservableProxy:update() such that it notifies a Java observable. That solution seems conceptually simple, but there is a snag: How do we hold onto a reference to a Java object from within a C++ object?

It might seem like we could simply store a handle to a Java object within a C++ object. If this were so, we might code C++::JavaObservableProxy like this:

Unfortunately, the solution to our dilemma is not so simple. When Java passes you a handle to a Java object, the handle] will remain valid for the duration of the call. It will not necessarily remain valid if you store it on the heap and try to use it later. Why is this so? Because of Java's garbage collection.

First of all, we're trying to maintain a reference to a Java object, but how does the Java runtime know we're maintaining that reference? It doesn't. If no Java object has a reference to the object, the garbage collector might destroy it. In this case, our C++ object would have a dangling reference to an area of memory that used to contain a valid Java object but now might contain something quite different.

Even if we're confident that our Java object won't get garbage collected, we still can't trust a handle to a Java object after a time. The garbage collector might not remove the Java object, but it could very well move it to a different location in memory! The Java spec contains no guarantee against this occurrence. Sun's JDK 1.0.2 (at least under Solaris) won't move Java objects in this way, but there are no guarantees for other runtimes.

If your car is in the center of the lane, your head will be in the left half of the lane If your head is in the center of the lane, you're too far to the right If your head is on the center line, you're obviously too far to the left

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