Hi.
So our users seems to need JDK1.5 (or should I call it JDK5.0?) but it's clear it's not free software at all! Also, if we support non free JDK's, I doubt people will test free JVM's and file bug reports against them (and that's what we need more: this simple test case works with non free JVM, but it does not work with free JVM). All these little test cases improves free JVM's a lot to find bugs and things not working as it should.
I wonder why exectly the test case under concideration does not work on JDK1.5. Is it because of some flaws in Sun's implementation, or rather due to incompatibility with the new language and bytecode version? In the latter case, I'd say fixing the problems is beneficial for free Java implementations as well. At least for those which plan to support the new language and bytecode versions.
I'm not a debian-patch robot. I cannot only apply patch and upload the result packages, I need to test them and if it's not possible, I should not upload packages. I'm doing this with java-package but I can do it in a limited way: only for simple batch patches I can see the result is valid.
Thanks a lot, for taking care of that. I understand all your concerns about supporting non-free software. And I understand that java-package is not very interesting for powerpc users. Therefore I appreciate your engagement for the users very much.
With this email, I know I'm on the «free software» side, not on «our users» side. I regret this and encourage other debian developers to be on the «our users» side... if they want to.
I'm a bit ashamed, that I don't do more effort for that myself. Support for java-package and further efforts to integrate sun's JDKs into Debian should come from those needing it. We should be glad that other people fight for free Java implementations, and let them focus on that.
One thing I can do is to look at patches when I have time. So please, «our users», continue submitting patches and bug reports, but you have to know these ones are very low priority.
I tried the new version of java-package today with JDK1.5. It seems to work fine. However, I didn't try any fancy stuff yet. I'll definitely report bugs, if I find any.
Regards, a user