Re: [gentoo-java] Java ideas for Summer of Code

[Joshua Nichols <nichoj@gentoo.org>]

robert burrell donkin wrote:
> On 5/4/06, *Joshua Nichols* <nichoj@gentoo.org 
> <mailto:nichoj@gentoo.org>> wrote:
>
>     (The following is shamelessly yanked from the blog post I just made)
>
>
> <snip>
>
>     *1a)*
>     /Summary:/
>
>     Build most of our Java packages with free (libre) virtual machines and
>     free implementations of public APIs.
>
>     /Background:/
>
>     Currently, we really only support using a proprietary virtual machine
>     (ie sun, blackdown, ibm, etc), because packages are likely to fail for
>     various reason with the open ones.
>
>     For many open apis, such as javamail, java activation framework,
>     etc, we
>     have binary packages of Sun's proprietary implementations. In a
>     number
>     of cases, there are open implementations. However, our packages
>     compile
>     against and run using the proprietary implementations.
>
>     For reasons why one would want to be using Free Java, see the
>     article on
>     the Java trap < http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/java-trap.html>.
>
>     As for a practical reason, use of proprietary packages from Sun
>     and IBM
>     can annoying for the end user, because in both cases, it requires
>     placing a fetch restriction on the distfiles. To the end user, this
>     means that an emerge gets halted until they agree to a license, and
>     download the files.
>
>     /Goals:/
>
>         * Build/run all/most packages using free virtual machines
>         * Build/run all/most packages against free implementations of
>     public
>           APIs
>         * Might want to target specific big name packages, like eclipse,
>           azureus, tomcat.
>         * Be able to select between different implementations of the
>     same apis
>
>     /Tasks:/
>
>         * Work with upstream of packages that use propertary classes from
>           the virtual machine (ie com.sun.*, sun.*)
>         * Work with upstream of virtual machines and packages when
>     packages
>           don't compile or run with using free java
>         * Find and package open implementations of public APIs
>
>  
>
>     /Hurdles:/
>
>         * Lots of Java packages (300+). It is unknown how many will
>     need to
>           be patched.
>         * Upstream might not care about free java
>
>         * Might not be open implementations of all APIs
>
>
> why the emphasis on software libre?
>
And I think you're reading too much into what I said. By libre, I really 
mean open source.
> why exclude ASL'd libraries from the effort?
ASL? Do you mean the Apache license? In either case, I don't recall 
saying anything about excluding anything.
> why not open source java?
>
Uh, open source java is EXACTLY what I'm talking about :)
> the ASF has already made considerable progress in creating open source 
> clean room implementations for the major java specifications (harmony, 
> geronimo, ws). gump and harmony have been working closely with the 
> classpath and kaffe teams for a number of years now.
>
Open source java implementations have actually made tons of progress 
everywhere in the past year or so.
> - robert
>
In the future, be sure to reply on-list.


Josh

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