A Native Version of nmerge

Nmerge allows you to merge a number of versions into one file, a multi-version document. But it is written in Java, and so it is difficult to call it most hosted web servers, which don't support Java. Although only a possibility at this stage, gcj (the Gnu Java compiler) can generate native code out of Java. If this works I won't need to port my nmerge code to C++ and I can keep developing in Java with all the benefits of a higher level and more modern language. Gcj is a bit hard to use and always seems out of date, particularly the Swing GUI stuff, so I won't know if it really works until I try to compile the whole thing. But as there is no GUI associated with nmerge, it should work. I'll be trying to do this in the next few days, because I need it for the Booklogic demo, and I'll post another note when it works/doesn't work.

But does it work?

Actually, no. At least not gcj. First off, it's only 1.5 compatible. Secondly even that doesn't work. After careful testing I discovered that gcj can't read files properly, which is kind of fundamental. And I can't afford the Russian product that is supposed to work very well. So, it's back to rewriting nmerge in C++. Oh well.