Accessing .NET/dll libraries/components from Java?

Question

Are there inexpensive or free gateways from .NET to Java? I\'m looking at some data acquisition hardware which has drivers for C/C++ and .NET -- I really don\'t wan

Answer 1

If you have a Java application, the JNI mentioned by the others will be the way to go. You write some wrapper classes, and that's it.

If writing the wrappes is a too big task (depending on the number of methods you have to wrap), have a look at SWIG . I think it generates wrappers automatically, but I never actually used it.

If you want to code in the Java language, but you don't care if your program will run on the JRE/JVM, then you might as well use Microsoft J#. Basically, it's writing Java-Code wich is compiled to .NET-Bytecode and can use the .NET classes of the driver as well as your existing Java classes. With J# you will run into problems if your existing Java-code is newer than Java 1.4, look at this question on how to solve them.

From that point on, you could later add code in J#, C# or any other .NET language. However, you won't get back to the JRE/JVM easily.