Actually, you don't need to modify the .java files, and in fact, modifying the .java
files is strictly prohibited in the license (as such modifications could potentially
be misconstrued by the licensee as permission to change the apis). The license does
permit personal use of your own port. If you are a company doing the port for your
company's use, rather than you as an individual porting for your own personal use,
then you are correct in your interpretation of the license. You would be required to
pass the JCK and pay a license fee, etc. As an individual, you would not have to do
this unless you intended to release your port over the Internet, on CDROM, or
otherwise "distribute" it.
Now, I'm not a lawyer, nor am I in charge of licenses for Sun, but I'm sure they would
be willing to work out a fair license fee for an individual who wanted to distribute
their port. You would still be required to pass the JCK before you could distribute,
though.
Back to modifying the .java files - the only modifications you should ever need to
make (even for the .java files that call native methods) is in the .c, .cpp and .s
(asm) files. The header files for the native VM code is where you would want to make
your changes for internal type representation (i.e., is a long a 64-bit value, or is
an int a 64-bit value kinds of things). Any mapping between native types and Java
types is handled by jni_md.h for purposes of JNI. If you can think of good reasons why
you would absolutely have to change the .java files, then you may want to bring that
up to Sun. I personally can't think of any reason to change the .java files at all
unless you were adding new methods or otherwise changing the apis - which results in a
version of the Java core apis which depends on one specific port of the VM. Again,
that is strictly prohibited by the license.
So, the "free for personal use" hasn't been thrown out the window. It's just that the
language of the license is a little obtuse (but lawyers tend to write that way
deliberately, I think). If you're really unsure exactly what the meaning of the
license is, you should have an attorney read it over and explain it to you - or better
yet, ask Sun directly. If Sun says you may not use your port for personal use without
paying a license fee and passing all the tests, then I agree that would be a bit much.
--Jeff
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