From: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 10:42:40 +0800
To: Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com>
Subject: RE: Java bignum package
Message-ID: <199603160809.AAA01000@ix14.ix.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 06:08 PM 3/15/96 -0800, Hal Finney wrote:
>My implementation is purely in Java, so it is much slower than one which
>uses native methods, although I don't think native methods can be sent
>across the net automatically like applets, so until they are widely
>distributed a pure-Java implementation may have some advantages.

Does Java have a run-time way to do
        #if_exists library_X
                foo = library_X.method_a(bar, baz)
        #else
                foo = library_Y.method_a(bar, baz)
        #endif
or equivalent?  This would let you distribute a slow pure-java library
that's compatible to a native-mode library and use whichever you need.
#--
#			Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, stewarts@ix.netcom.com, +1-415-442-2215 pager 408-787-1281
# "At year's end, however, new government limits on Internet access threatened
# to halt the growth of Internet use.  [...] Government control of news media 
# generally continues to depend on self-censorship to regulate political and
# social content, but the authorities also consistently penalize those who
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