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Re: Java Policy.



> > There are many other free JVMs now: ORP, KissMe, etc... 
> 
> I am not very happy with trying to compile some Java code (e.g. Jmol 
> jmol.sf.net) with every free JVM to see wether it can be done with that... 

You should only have to compile the class files once (the classes should
still work, even if they were compiled against a non-free JVM - if
you're lucky).

Based on the list of VMs I compiled for Kaffe website, there are maybe
20 free JVM implementations out there.  I don't think it's reasonable to
expect maintainers to have to try out their software on all the JVMs
that might eventually wind up in Debian.

> Thus confirming that Jmol only runs with non-free VMs is a bit hard to 
> tell... Ofcourse, the statement should say that the software does only
> support to work with non-free VMs, or along that line... (Is it worthwhile to 
> change the text accordingly?)
> 
> Something like:
> 
> Only if your binary package can run with free virtual machines (like kaffe, 
> libgcj, ORP and KissMe), it may go into main. Otherwise, it must go into 
> non-free, or in contrib if your package itself is free.
> 
> Does this sound ok?

There are still going to be problems though - a Java application that
runs on one VM might not run on another, because they are at different
levels of maturity.  But I guess that really is the fault of the VM and
class libraries for not being compatible enough.

> Anyway, about kaffe... it has been a very long time since I gave it a try...
> Is it hard to port code from Sun's/Blackdown's JVM to kaffe? Do I need to
> recompile or can kaffe run classes?

Kaffe can just run the you build classes.  You shouldn't have to "port"
anything to it.  Usually, the main problems you will see are with
incomplete or missing API implementations, and the occasional bug.

Kaffe hasn't had a new release in 2 years, but there has been work on
the CVS version.  As I'm the new guy running the project, I'm going to
try to get a release out in the next month or so.  I want to get a
release candidate out in the next few days.

Cheers,

 - jim



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