You can compile the classes originally using guavac before you deliver
them, then you're untainted. I assume you were just trying to start a free
software discussion?
As to whether there should be a free cross-platform compiler, of course
there should. I would guess that guavac can be compiled on any platform g++
compiles on, though. A Java compiler doesn't have to be too
system-specific, since most of the libraries it calls are for file and
string manipulation. The rest is probably homegrown objects and functions,
possibly mixed with some platform-independent output from lex/yacc.
I don't know why RMS would care if his free, GPL'd, platform-independent
classfiles were compiled using an evil Sun compiler or not; the end product
is free, and that's the point. I think that position would be a little bit
loony. I am far from a purist on the free software issue, however, so
getting inside his head is a bit tricky for me.
I want free software because: (a) I want something *I* can work on, and
(b) it generally has better quality.
--John Keiser
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of
> Brian Jones
> Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 1998 1:26 PM
> To: John Keiser
> Cc: Brian Jones; Wes Biggs; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: guavac
>
>
> "John Keiser" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> > The chicken-and-egg problem is only relevant for distributions
> that have to
> > build Java code at the client, which it shouldn't have to do if
> the classes
> > are not machine-specific.
>
> I see your point and raise you another question. From a purist point
> of view does it matter? Would RMS (purist of the pure) happily use
> .class files compiled using a possibly proprietary means? Anyway, you
> can set the JAVAC environment variable before compiling to control
> which compiler is used already. I agree with you that we can
> basically ignore the java compilation problem if we want to from the
> end user's perspective.
>
> Just found a neat program written in Java, JavaDeps. You can read
> more at http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~stever/software/JavaDeps-2/
> This is for accurately tracking dependencies between Java source files
> and recompiling them as needed.
>
> Brian
> --
> |-------------------------------|Software Engineer
> |Brian Jones |[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> |[EMAIL PROTECTED] |http://www.nortel.net
> |http://www.classpath.org/ |------------------------------
>
>
