Java and autotools

[John W. Eaton]

On 25-Nov-2012, Rik wrote:

| Would it be helpful to borrow some of the Java-related macros from the
| Autoconf Archive rather than rolling our own?  See
| http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf-archive/The-Macros.html#The-Macros and
| search for the word java.  There are several that I think could be useful. 
| Currently, I'm not able to build on kubuntu 10.04 with OpenJDK6.  The build
| can't find jni.h which I think could be fixed by using the
| ax_jni_include_dir macro.  I don't mind volunteering to try and get these
| to work, but I won't push forward if you think it is the wrong way to go.

Yeah, I'd like to improve the way we check for Java.

I just grabbed the section from the java package configure script that
appeared to do the job.  I assumed, apparently incorrectly, that it
would work given that it had been in the java package for a long time.
I'm busy with another project this week, but if I have some free time
I'll try to take a look.  But if someone else wants to look at
improving it, then that would be great.  I also plan to change the way
that __java__.oct finds octave.jar.  It should be looking in the
location determined at compile time, or by using some environment
variable, not by searching the load path for the __java__.oct file as
that seems unreliable.

jwe