Can you use Java Swing in c++

Question

This may be a bit of an odd question, but I would like to know if you can use Java inside c++14. I don't really care for GTK (I find it confusing and over complicated). Swing, however, is very easy to use, and you can get a working project very quickly. So I would like to know if you can use Java Swing inside c++, so I can use Swing as the foreground, as in what you see like graphics, and use c++ for the background, as in stuff you cant see, like calculations and objects and stuff. So if I can have c++ code tell Swing what to look like, or when to update, that would be very useful for the project I have in mind. Thanks in advance for any advice I may receive.

EDIT: Being able to use c++14 inside Java would be acceptable as well. Also, if anyone could get me example code also, this would be very helpful. Thanks!

Answer 1

You shouldn't run Java from C++, but rather C++ from Java. Oracle gives you a way to load native shared libraries, using JNI.

So you would create your view in Java, using Swing, then you would update your view by calling C++ functions that were pre-compiled and exported in a shared library.

That said, using JNI is quite tricky and the speed improvements of C++ might not be worth it; so you should consider using only Java (or only C++ and a library to create your GUI, such as Qt)

Answer 2

In which direction you go is a matter of taste (loading the JVM from a C++ program or loading DLLs from the JVM side).

Usually you go the way which is more logical, e.g. if you already have a C++ program you likely want to load the JVM from the C++ side. That would be your case. Especially if the Java you want to add is essentially "scripting" the C++ application.

If you already have a Java program and want to access a C++ DLL, you load the DLL from Java and write a simple JNI / native Java class.

In our times you would use tools like JNA for that (instead of JNI): https://github.com/java-native-access/jna

Or you can use SWIG to generate wrappers for your C++ classes: http://www.swig.org/