A Generic Java Language Extension

I can't seem to get the retrofitted java.util classes to work!

JDK 1.2 has a different classpath regime than JDK 1.1. Instead of a
single classpath, there is now a bootclasspath and a user classpath.
When loading classes, the compiler looks up the bootclasspath first,
then, if the class was not found there, the user classpath. The
bootclasspath is by default set to
 
  \jdk1.2\jre\lib\rt.jar;\jdk1.2\jre\lib\i18n.jar
 
(Assuming \jdk1.2 is the directory where you have installed JDK 1.2).
The problem is that the rt.jar archive contains the original
collection classes. Since the bootclasspath is searched first, the
compiler will never find the retrofitted versions!
 
The problem can be fixed by prefixing the bootclasspath with your own
classes directory (the one where you keep the retrofitted collection
classes). On Windows, this is achieved by having the batch file
gjc.bat read as follows:
 
  java -ms12m gjc.Main -bootclasspath
\gj\classes\;c:\jdk1.2\jre\lib\rt.jar;c:\jdk1.2\jre\lib\i18n.jar %1 %2 %3 %4
%5 %6 %7 %8 %9
 
On Unix, an alias such as
 
  alias gjc   java -ms12m gjc.Main -bootclasspath
$HOME\gj\classes:$HOME\jdk1.2\jre\lib\rt.jar:$HOME\jdk1.2\jre\lib\i18n.jar
 
should work.