I got it! I figured out how to write scripts in java. Don't know all the limitations but I got my java HelloWorld Vegas script working.

Its been a long day so here is a rough outline. I'm bound to have forgotten something so I'd really appreciate someone else trying to duplicate this and helping me clean up the instructions as we go. Still early days, so only follow along if you're a foolish early adopter ;-). I'll try and describe my system, but be aware that my development path was anything but linear so there is a definitely a ton of redundancy and unnecessary steps in the following. I assume you're a java-savvy developer who can grasp the concept and do it your own way. I'm just trying to document what I did this first time in I forget something when I get back to it ;-)

1) Download and install the latest release of the binary ikvm from sourceforge link to ikvm. You only need the binary. I installed to "c:\Progs\ikvm". its a simple zip extraction.

2) Ikvm is a java substitute. I develop in the Eclipse IDE so I want ikvm to look just like an installed java. See using ikvm with eclipse. These instructions are incomplete because they create a "jre" and eclipse needs a "jdk". So after you've created your bin and lib directories, copied "ikvm.exe" to "java.exe" in bin and created the rt.jar in lib, copy the "c:\Progs\ikvm" directory to "c:\Progs\ikvm\jre".

3) Now we need to create stub jar files for all the dlls that we'll use. This is the ikvmstub tool. I looked at all the references that Sony.Vegas.dll used, so I created jars for the interop.VegasCOM.dll, Microsoft.JScript.dll, Microsoft.VisualBasic.Vsa.dll, Microsoft.Vsa.dll, mscorlib.dll, Sony.Vegas.dll, System.Windows.Forms.dll, and System.Xml.dll. (This is doubtless overkill. For sure we need the mscorlib.dll and the Sony.Vegas.dll. I added all the others because I was getting an error and needed to eliminate a possible cause.) So run ikvmstub on each of these files and copy them to the "C:\Progs\ikvm\lib" and "C:\Progs\ikvm/jre/lib" directories. This too is probably overkill, i.e., we probably don't need them in both directories. Alternatively, you could say that I'm using poor code management techniques and should instead copy these files into each java project as needed and you'd be right.

4) My Windows PATH system variable includes:

C:\Progs\ikvm\bin;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322

5) I created an Eclipse java project called VegasVideo, with src and bin directories. "C;\eclipse\workspace\VegasVideo". I configured the project to copy all the dlls in the ikvm/bin to the VegasVideo/bin drectory. The project uses the kvm java compiler rather than the default java compiler.

6) I created a java class called Main in the VegasVideo/src/Demo/VegasHello directory. The code is below:

package Demo.VegasHello;
import cli.Sony.Vegas.Vegas;
import cli.System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox;

public class Main {
public static void Start(Vegas v, String scriptFile) {
MessageBox.Show("Got here");
MessageBox.Show("Vegas version = "+v.get_Version());
}
}

7) I dos prompted to the "C;\eclipse\workspace\VegasVideo\bin" directory and typed the following:

ikvmc -out:VegasHello.dll - target:library -reference:Sony.Vegas.dll -reference:mscorlib.dll -reference:Interop.VegasCOM.dll Demo/VegasHello/Main.class

I got a minor warnng about referencing to the ikvm.gnu.classpath.dll, but the result was a VegasHello.dll in the bin directory.

8) I copied this VegasHello.dll file into the C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas 5.0\Script Menu\Hello directory. I also copied the VegasHello.dll and VegasHello.js.config fles from the Peachrock tutorial

VegasHello.js follows:

import System;
import System.Windows.Forms;
import Demo.VegasHello;
try {
Main.Start(Vegas, ScriptFile);
} catch (e) {
MessageBox.Show("JScript: " + e.ToString() );
}

VegasHello.js.config follows:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ScriptSettings>
<AssemblyReference IsLocal="true">VegasHello.dll</AssemblyReference>
</ScriptSettings>


9) As discussed in the bottom paragraph at this link, rather than copying umpteen large files into every script directory, we should add two dlls to the "Global Assembly Cache". In WinXP, open the Control Panel, then the Administrative Tools, launch the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Configuration, select "Manage the Assembly Cache" then "Add an Assembly to the Assembly Cache" to bring up the file dialog, then go to "c:\Progs\ikvm.bin and add the IKVM.GNU.Classpath.dll and IKVM.Runtime.dll. (Alternatively you could copy these two files nto each script directory.)

11) I think that's about it. Run the script and you'll see a "Got here" message box then the Vegas Version="" message box.

And that's good enough for me, for now. I've proved that I can write a script with a simple entry point into java, and I can access the Vegas instance from java As for the rest, we shall see...

Congrats on getting it to work! I too was a Java programmer before delving into C#. I found that the C# language was pretty close to Java (except for properties instead of getters/setters), but the .Net class libraries are very different from Java.

Since you have to use the .Net class libraries even with Java, you still have to learn the .Net API, so it sounds like the main benefit is already being familiar with the development environment, correct?

Good luck,

Randall