Re: GR: Removal of non-free
[MJ Ray - Fri, 2 Jan 2004 03:38:36 PM CST]
> I think there's ORP, GCJ, Kaffee and maybe one other Java in main. I
> do not know if ant runs on them, because all ant distributions that I
> have seen seem to be set up to want the Sun JDK, including the one in
> contrib. I do not know ant well enough to change that and I have
> insufficient time and motive to learn about ant just now. It would be
> wonderful if someone who does know ant can enumerate the problems and
> make them available to the people who know those implementations.
> Surely getting ant into Debian matters to someone capable of that?
Yes. However, only the commercial JVM's (Sun's and IBM's) are actually
complete enough, however, or stable enough. I did research (up until
recently) with writing Java compilers, and it's a very tough row to hoe.
Even after five years our own compiler only passed something like 85% of
the compatibility suite tests, and only implemented 95% of Java
1.3---and nowadays 1.4 is out. The horrible backwards compatibility of
it all is one of the biggest problems... anyways, I digress.
> Basically, it seemed very difficult for them to install on a stock
> Debian system. I speculate that this is because contrib is not as
> well-integrated or -tested as main. I think it gives a very bad
> impression to users to present such software on Debian mirrors.
You speculate; I know. 'cause I wrote the Debian/Apache/Tomcat4
howto (I say 'the' because I only know of one other Tomcat howto, and
it's for Tomcat3), and I don't think the problems are because tomcat4 is
in contrib that it's difficult to set up. It's because Tomcat and
friends have always been bitches to set up anywhere, and because
Tomcat4's default configuration is geared towards apache2 --- which was
not working well in Debian at the time I wrote the tutorial, though
things are better now.
So the problems mostly stemmed from a package in main.
> >Charging into battle without adequate armor isn't a good idea. :)
>
> Battle metaphors are not helpful to this discussion. Please try to
> collaborate if you wish to help. If not, just state your complaint.
Oh, I do wish to help, I just wanted to make sure you actually had
anything before I said anything. You assume I don't want to help, which
is a pretty crass and unfitting assumption to make, particularly
since I've been reading and posting here and there to this thread.
Whereas you just charged into battle, quite literally, with no armor,
with your (to my mind) somewhat accusatory post.
I just didn't want to poke you without good reason.
--
A beautiful woman is a blessing from Heaven, but a good
cigar is a smoke.
-- Kipling
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