IKVM

Components

IKVM includes the following components:

• A Java virtual machine (JVM) implemented in .NET
• A .NET implementation of the Java class libraries
• A tool that translates Java bytecode (JAR files) to .NET IL (DLLs or EXE files).
• Tools that enable Java and .NET interoperability

IKVM can run compiled Java code (bytecode) directly on Microsoft .NET or Mono. The bytecode is converted on the fly to CIL and executed.

By contrast J# is a Java syntax on the .NET framework, whereas IKVM is effectively a Java framework running on top of the .NET framework.

Jeroen Frijters was the main contributor to IKVM. He is Technical Director of Sumatra Software, based in the Netherlands.

Name

The "IKVM" portion of the name is a play on "JVM" in which the author "just took the two letters adjacent to the J".

Status

IKVM 8 implements Java 8.

The IKVM organization also maintains IKVM.Maven.Sdk, an extension to the .NET PackageReference system that allows direct references to and transpiling of Maven artifacts. IKVM.Maven.Sdk is also available on NuGet.org.

Example

The following is a .NET application written in Java, which prints the list of files in the current directory.

Note that in IKVM, the System.* namespace in .NET is written as cli.System.*.

package org.wikipedia.examples;

import cli.System.IO.*;

public class Example {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String[] files = Directory.GetFiles(".");
        for (String file : files) {
            System.out.println(file);
        }
    }
}

References

References

1. "License". www.ikvm.net.
2. "The End of IKVM.NET".
3. "IKVM is alive & well". www.windwardstudios.com.
4. (27 August 2022). "IKVM - Java Virtual Machine for .NET". [[GitHub]].
5. "Sumatra Software b.v.".
6. "osdir mailing list archive for java.ikvm.devel".
7. "IKVM.Maven.Sdk". [[GitHub]].
8. "IKVM.Maven.Sdk". www.nuget.org.
9. (2023). "IKVM Tutorial". Windward Studios, Jerome Haltom.