Re: Bug#156407: ITP: free-java-sdk -- Complete Java SDK environment consising of free Java tools
On 12 Aug 2002, Grzegorz Prokopski wrote:
> Facts that caused that I have choosen this set of tools.
> * kaffe
> It contains it's own JAVA_HOME environment, so it wouldn't make sense
> to just copy it. If you can build with kaffe - then stick with
> it and don't use free-java-sdk. However - be careful about licenses -
> see below.
Huh? Speak english, this makes no sense.
> * kaffe and other GPL-licensed JVMs can only be used with GPL compatible
> software (i.e. no Apache style licenses!). See
> http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfInterpreterIsGPL
> Not to mention that kaffe's classlib is GPL [1]
So? It's still free.
> * other LGPL licensed JVMs that use GNU Classlib
> I tried them and... they couldn't load .zip'ed or .jar'ed classes
> (do you imagine doing 'decompress .jars to /tmp before execution' in
> 'java' wrapper?!)
> I have not actually expirienced this, but I was told, that some of
> free JVMs, that have JIT engines - have seriosu and still not solved
> problems with JIT.
add jar to classpath, done.
> * gcj - nice, but how do I use it? ;-)
> gcj can produce Java code, but you have to run the result somewhere
> this is even worse with software that uses for ex. ant to compile -
> you need to be able to run ant to compile them!
> I know gcj can compile to native code (on x86 platform only AFAIK) -
> but we didn't even agree (in java policy) how such packages should
> be named (let alone other problems and basic question: 'is this still
> java?').
Read the docs.
gcj doesn't produce java code. It compiles it, to either .class, or .o. It
can also compile .class to .o.
gij is a full interpeter; it can run .class and .jar files. It can also load
libraries as jar files.
> I don't claim that SableVM (http://www.sablevm.org/) is world's best
> JVM. But it has some features that caused the decision:
> - is LGPL (no potential licensing problems)
> - uses GNU Classpath (active upstream and GPL+linking exception)
> - is Java bytecode interpreter (can even be debugged with gdb)
> which is proven to be solid
same for gcj, and kaffe, I hear, if you enable some options.
> - it's upstream is really interested in having robust and widely used
> JVM [2], not only another research tool for students
> - it is written in pure C, should be very easily portable to other
> architectures (currently it supports x86, not sure about alpha, but in
> few months sparc support should be added)
kaffe and gcj are already heavily ported. kaffe has been ported to several
cell phones, and other embeddable devices.
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