Native Code Interface Specification

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Native Code Interface

This document describes the mechanism of calling between Java and native (typically C or C++) code using the Microsoft VM for Java. This will include the native code DLL interface, as well as implications in the mechanism for garbage collection. This does not describe the Component Object Model (COM) interface which is another method of interfacing the Microsoft VM for Java with native code written in any other language which supports COM.

Existing Native Code Interface
New Native Code interface
Overview of the Garbage Collection Architecture

The purpose of this native code interface is to provide absolutely the fastest possible interface to native code. While using the COM model makes interfacing to the garbage collection system transparent to the programmer, this interface does not. Instead, it places the burden of interfacing with the garbage collection system on the programmer. If raw access to native code is not essential for performance reasons, using COM is the preferred method of accessing non-Java code.