"Writing C code in Java/Clojure: GraalVM specific programming"
One of the latest fashions in the Java world is GraalVM. For someone who has been around, I still remember the "Write once, run anywhere" slogan of Java virtual machine. Apparently, the wheel has spun back, now people want to write native code in Java, which has to be compiled to different machine codes in different platforms.
The driving forces for this change may include the often lamented slow startup time of Java programs. For the brave new world of serverless functions, a quick starting program makes a lot of economic sense. The small but vibrant Clojure community, which I consider myself a part of, is particularly excited about this new found capability of JVM, for we now have one more way to write quick starting command line programs using our beloved language. The other way is to use ClojureScript on one of the Javascript engines, but Javascript engines are slower than JVM and are not as nice. For example, Babashka is one such example that has taken the community by storm.
As the author of Datalevin, a relatively new open source Datalog database, I have decided to answer the users' call for a native version of Datalevin using GraalVM native image technology. After some trials and errors, I have gotten a native version of Datalevin to pass all the tests. Now I can share some experience.
