title: How to choose a Java-COM bridge?
body: <p>I have to create an application which automates Outlook and Word and I want to use Java for that task. (The only allowed alternative would be VB6, so...)</p>
  
  <p>After a quick Google survey I found several libraries, but I'm not sure which one to use:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><a href="http://j-interop.org/" rel="noreferrer">J-Interop</a></li>
  <li>SWT </li>
  <li><a href="http://danadler.com/jacob/" rel="noreferrer">JACOB</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://com4j.kohsuke.org/" rel="noreferrer">COM4J</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://www.infozoom.de/en_jacoZoom.shtml" rel="noreferrer">jacoZoom</a></li>
  <li>...</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>I have no idea how to compare these libraries and make an informed decision. It seems that COM4J is a little bit outdated, JACOB leaks memory (allegedly) and jacoZoom is commercial. Each and every one seems to require a lot of boilerplate code to perform a simple method call. (Which might be unavoidable given the design of COM)</p>
  
  <p>Besides that I have no idea how to choose between one of them. Which one is the best? </p>