With z/TPF support for Java™, you can run Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) 8 applications on your z/TPF system. Programmers with little or no knowledge about the z/TPF system can develop Java applications using familiar integrated development environments (IDEs) and development tools for Java and then deploy those Java applications on your z/TPF system.
On the z/TPF system, the runtime environment for Java is the IBM® 64-bit Runtime Environment for z/TPF, Java Technology Edition, Version 8 and is compatible with Java SE version 8. Because z/TPF supports a Java SE 8 runtime environment, architects and programmers can take advantage of a wide variety of Java libraries and packages, incorporating them into your applications and deploying them on your z/TPF system with little or no modifications.
In addition to stand-alone Java applications, you can extend traditional z/TPF applications with Java. Java programmers can write business logic in Java and package the business logic as services in Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS) applications. The JAX-RS applications are deployed and managed on your z/TPF system through the z/TPF application manager for Java (JAM).
After the JAX-RS applications and JAMs are deployed on your z/TPF system, existing z/TPF applications call services by using the tpf_srvcInvoke function. In addition to calling the requested service, the tpf_srvcInvoke function automatically translates the request and response data between C structures and Java objects. This means z/TPF application programmers can call services by coding a simple function call and do not have to be familiar with Java. Conversely, Java programmers writing these services do not have to be familiar with z/TPF programming models or development environment.
Because z/TPF is compatible with Java SE 8, you can take existing application functions written in Java and deploy them as services on your z/TPF system. Instead of having your z/TPF applications make service calls across a network to remote systems or rewriting the business logic in C/C++, you use the same business logic written in Java across multiple systems and have z/TPF applications call those services locally.
Services implemented in Java and deployed to your z/TPF system can be accessed by more than just your local z/TPF system. Services written in Java can be configured to accept requests from remote systems through Representational State Transfer (REST) requests over HTTP, allowing local z/TPF applications and remote systems to access the same services.
For more information about APAR PJ43892, see the APEDIT.