RE: source code of a java app?

["Brooks R. Robinson" <brooks.robinson@rides.com>]

| i just got MIT's permission to package Starlogo[1] for Debian. It's
| a Java application to simulate cellular automata and large
| populations on distributed machines.

<snip>

| The second major challenge I see in the source code issue. MIT
| doesn't release the source code, so I guess it is not viable for
| Debian. Am I right, and should I push them to release to us, or are
| there even other issues at stake here?

Well, if it's a java app, it can be decompiled back into source.  There are
a few apps designed to do just that, but I don't know of any in Debian in
particular.  IMHO, Java is potentially the greatest open source language
there is, since it is simple to decompile back to source.  I say simple, but
then, I didn't write the decompiler. :)

Just my $0.02,

Brooks