Gene, Wichert wrote and asked if I could help answer your questions. The first thing you should understand about the design strategy of Debian is that our goal is to produce a 100% Open Source platform. In that sense, some of these tools are not available in the standard Debian distribution for licensing reasons as opposed to some technical motivation.
That said, basically all of the technologies you are asking about can be or are available for Debian immediately. In order to usefully answer your question, however, I will give you a status from an Open Source availability perspective. Java1 JVM/JIT: Kaffe 1.0.5 is largely feature complete and now includes support for RMI. I am not clear as to whether Kaffe's serialization is "pin compatible" with Sun's implementation in all cases so there may be interoperation issues in some casses. Java2 native compiler: I am unclear whether "native" compiler refers to the adaptive JIT capabilities in Java2 or to a compiler that understands Java2 semantics. In either case, Kaffe's JIT strategy is not adaptive but is still performant and becoming more so and I believe IBM's Jikes compiler understands Java2 concepts such as weak references. Java2 foundation libraries: Many of these components have been cloned under an Open Source license. Kaffe provides many of these routines, including an up-to-date RMI implementation. There are, however, definatly shortcomings. Swing, as far as I know, has not been cloned. EJB: There is activity in this area, the most noteworthy being the Open Source EJB implementation from Bull in France called Jonas. I have done some work with this system and it provides a good start towards a full EJB feature set. In particular, it provides a transaction monitor and a container based persistance implementation. I have used this system on Linux with free databases such as Postgresql. I have not been able to get the system fully operational on Kaffe. Additionally, the system depends on many Sun APIs which have not been cloned (JTA, JNDI, and EJB itself). JAIN: I am only tangetally familiar with this API. From my shallow knowledge of the effort I understand that it is a system for controlling large scale, integrated communications infrastructures and modeling events with such networks via the JavaBeans API. The scale of this effort seems very large and encompasses the work of many organizations. The work is very new and seems to tie into Sun's SCSL strategy, which would lead me to believe that there is not much in the way of Open Source options in this area. However, some protocols such as H.323 are genuinely open and are even cloned so it is possible that chunks of the JAIN system may exist in a scattered manner. I personally have no knowledge of a serious Open Source implementation of RTP or the H.323 infrastructures in Java. Jini: Jini presents an especially pronounced Open Source problem. Jini is only available as source from Sun and that source is only available under the SCSL. The SCSL is not compatible in any sense with either the legal mechanics or the political spirit of Free Software. The SCSL also makes cloning the API of an SCSL implementation illegal which precludes even a clean room replication of Jini. If you are interested in "tuple space" type implementations there are Open Source options. We have even been working on one such system internally that we intend to turn loose as Open Source. We have used this system to produce "Jini-like" functionality, but cannot use Jini itself. I hope that this provides some useful feedback for you. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have more questions. Best, E On Tue, Oct 19, 1999 at 01:09:10AM +0200, Wichert Akkerman wrote: > ----- Forwarded message from "Forte, Gene L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ----- > From: "Forte, Gene L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "'[EMAIL PROTECTED]'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Java on Debian > Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 11:51:18 -0700 > > Can you refer me to someone who can inform me about the status of Java on > Debian...specifically, what is the availability of: > > Java 1 JBM.JIT > Java 2 JVM/JIT > Java 2 native compiler > Java 2 foundation libraries (java.util, java.io, java.swing) > EJB > JAIN > Jini > > running on Intel-based platforms? what are your plans for these tools? > > > ------------------------ > > Gene L Forte > > Strategic Marketing > > Intel Corporation, Platform Tools Operation > > 5350 N.E. Elam Young Parkway, MS EY2-13, Hillsboro, OR 97124-6461 > > (Tel) 503-696-2077, (Fax) 503-696-3730, (Mobile) 503-804-8546 > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ___________________________________________________________________ Ean Schuessler As above Novare International Inc. so below --- Some or all of the above signature may be a joke
