10 messages in com.perforce.perforce-user[p4] Java interface to Perforce / P4A...| From | Sent On | Attachments |
|---|---|---|
| Dan Harmer | 30 Oct 2001 10:14 | |
| Jeff A. Bowles | 30 Oct 2001 16:31 | |
| Chris Patti | 31 Oct 2001 15:02 | |
| Gordon Broom | 31 Oct 2001 15:55 | |
| Chuck Karish | 31 Oct 2001 22:02 | |
| Chris Patti | 01 Nov 2001 07:34 | |
| Chris Patti | 01 Nov 2001 08:25 | |
| Gregg G. Wonderly | 05 Nov 2001 07:37 | |
| Hoff, Todd | 05 Nov 2001 07:54 | |
| Rick Macdonald | 05 Nov 2001 08:34 |
| Subject: | [p4] Java interface to Perforce / P4API for Java |
|---|---|
| From: | Rick Macdonald (ric...@vsl.com) |
| Date: | 11/05/2001 08:34:38 AM |
| List: | com.perforce.perforce-user |
As the author of "TkP4" (http://web.cuug.ab.ca/~macdonal/tkp4) I can agree that parsing p4 stdout/stderr is a pain because of some inconsistencies and other issues. A year ago Perforce (Chris himself) had offered (tentitively) to add a switch for me (that would be similar to the python -G) to output Tcl format for me, but that never happened.
As for the failed Java client, as I recall they tried to use JNI so they probably don't have a pure Java API library laying around.
At the conference a year ago I stated in my TkP4 presentation that, as much as I enjoy developing TkP4, I think the company really should provide a proper multiplatform client.
That said, I'm sure we customers will still want a multiple-platform API to roll our own, and people will always write simple scripts to parse p4 command output.
On Mon, 5 Nov 2001, Gregg G. Wonderly wrote:
From my perspective this is somewhat of a cop out. My issues with requiring stdout to be parsed go beyond the output being 'arcane' it has nothing to do with that. In fact the p4 command's output is quite consistent and to be fair I can think of much more difficult programs to 'wrap' as you say.
Chris, I am not sure whether you know this or not, but at one point, perforce tried to create a new Java based P4 client. They were inexperienced with Java, and made the mistake of trying to use JDK 1.2, very early on, when it, and swing were horribly broken. So, they probably have an API library laying around somewhere. Also, they may not be excited about relooking at this issue given that they were not impressed with their experience with Java.
Your thoughts are right on though. Perforce needs a 100% java API implementation of the library that will allow easy and concise applications to be written, and have them be dependable and robust. I have a Java client that I started, but stopped working on after I got tired of parsing 'p4' output... I'd be very motivated to jump back on that project so that I'd have a multiplatform client to use...
----- gregg at c2-tech.com (C2 Technologies Inc)
...RickM...