Eventually, especially when creating embedded systems, the time comes when a programmer must jump the gap between the world contained within the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and the world of the low-level applications programming interface (API) through which hardware services are accessed. The Java Native Interface (JNI) is the preferred interface to non-Java routines but its use is often seen as arcane and mysterious. This need not be the case; the JNI can be accessed through comparatively straightforward and effective techniques. At our May meeting, member Mike Elliott will discuss these techniques, along with the reverse: how to access the JVM from outside the Java world.

Mike Elliott has been an embedded systems programmer and project manager for over twenty years, building projects as diverse as wastewater treatment plant control systems and GPS Satellite receivers. He has built embedded systems in a number of programming languages, including Z80 assembly, C, C++, Fortran, and Ada, as well as in Java.

Mike has recently been a Member of the Technical Staff with Sun Microsystems, Los Angeles, California. He has a BS in Information and Computer Science from the Universtity of California, Irvine, and an M.Sc. in Computer Systems Engineering from Edinburgh University. Scotland.