Bob Jamison wrote:
I don't see the problem here at all. Calling out to the Java VM is no harder than calling out to Perl or Python. In fact, Java's C API is actually a lot cleaner than those (especially that awful Perl crappy API).
I see a few problems: 1. JVM is *not* free software and can't be packaged by 3-rd party distributors; 2. regarding the size, JVM is a bigger dependency compared with either Perl and Python; 3. on a free desktop you have a bigger chance to already have both Perl and Python already installed compared with JVM.
An aside note: Some people have an irrational Java-phobia. More like a language racism. If it works, it works, whatever the paradigm. Any worthwhile programmer should use every available tool in the toolkit, and not limit himself to any single mode.
Depending of a non-free Java VM would impede the freedom of Inkscape as a whole - http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/java-trap.html