I want to get some class files linked into an EXE to distribute to a friend. Does anyone know any easy-to-use tools to do this with?

An example of what I mean is Eclipse, the Java editor, which was written in Java but is in a native EXE.

www.google.com.  The results are too numerous to funnel.

This was the 9th result in the search "java exe":

[quote]
Xenoage Java Exe Starter 2.0

(c) 2005 by Andreas Wenger, Xenoage Software


In Java you can generate executable Jar-files. But most windows users are only familiar with Exe files. Moreover it is not possible to assign icons to a Java Archive. This program solves these problems by generating an Exe with an arbitrary icon, that starts the Jar when it is launched. You can also choose which JRE versions are allowed and you can pack the Jar into the Exe file so that you need only to deliver one single file.

Xenoage Java Exe Starter is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License. If you like this program, please support us with a voluntary donation.

[img]http://www.xenoage.com/img/scrshot/jestart2.png[/img]
[/quote]

Ugh. I forgot to use Google. Rofl.

The Eclipse exe esentially does the following:

javaw Eclipse
<loading screen>

"Java exe's" don't really exist.

[quote author=rabbit link=topic=14455.msg147843#msg147843 date=1141788468]
The Eclipse exe esentially does the following:

javaw Eclipse
<loading screen>

"Java exe's" don't really exist.
[/quote]

Yeah, Rabbit is right.  Eclipse and Azureus and stuff just call out to javaw. 

You can have a look at gcj.  It's gcc's Java compiler.  I have no idea how well/poorly it works, having never used it myself.

I think gcj compiles native executables.

Here's a good article related to this discussion:
http://www.excelsior-usa.com/articles/java-to-exe.html

@MyndFyre:
That one didn't work well. Either that or I build the jar wrong (which I probably did).

@Rabbit:
I know, but it'd be a whole lot easier to distribute a jar packed inside an EXE, so it had a nice icon and stuff like that, then to send a jar out to people and them have no clue what to do. Most people know what an EXE does, but not a jar. Not to mention javaw not being assigned to jars.

@Banana fanna fo fanna:
Yeah, but only for Linux.