I hope Google picks up the fight and ends up taking down the pathetically broken patent system and destructive lawyers. The Mono impl of C# can easily deal with the issue btw. since they can do AOT which is, ironically, also the only way to do things on the iPhone.
On Aug 15, 9:35 pm, B Smith-Mannschott <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 20:42, RogerV <[email protected]> wrote: > > Now that Oracle has unleashed against Google over use of Java language > > on the Android platform, this warrants a bold move on Google's part: > > Oracle's suit against Google has nothing to do with *Java* *the* > *Language*. Oracle is claiming to hold valid patents covering > techniques used in building high performance virtual machines and > further claiming that Dalvik is infringing on those same patents. > > > Switch to its own Go language as the flagship programming language for > > the Android platform. Dump Java. > > Given how Oracle is presenting their case, it's not Java-the-language > that needs dumping, its execution via virtual machine that's at issue. > Google could compile Java to native code ahead of time (see, for > example gcj). > > Now, Go might be an interesting candidate here as it's intended to > compile down to native code and run without a VM and an ARM code > generator already exists. But, it's by no means the only choice. > There are plenty of languages around that will compile to native code. > Some are even type-safe, memory-safe and garbage-collected. > > > Apple has done this kind of maneuver routinely and successfully > > brought its mass of developers along - no doubt Google could pull off > > such a transition too. > > > Instead of using the existing native code ARM compiler for Go, am > > thinking more in terms of a new compiler that targets the Dalvik VM. > > No. That would *not* *solve* *the* *problem*. If Oracle can make their > claims stick, Dalvik must go or be modified (crippled?). > > If Oracle can make their claims stick, there's no reason to believe > they'd stop with Dalvik. Any modern JavaScript engine (tracemonkey, > squirrelfish, V8, etc.) could very well run afoul of these very same > patents. > > Presumably one could AOT compile JavaScript (at page load time) and > sandbox the resulting machine code using the techniques Chrome uses to > do the same. I don't think anyone has ever tried such a thing, > however. > > And it doesn't necessarily end with JavaScript either. The Mono VM (C# > and the .Net languages) and any number of other VMs might be in > violation for all we know. > > Welcome to the uglyness that are software patents. With the sort of > stuff that gets patented sometimes it's entirely possible to become > eligible for a multi-million dollar lawsuit from a weekend of mildly > inspired hacking without even realizing it. An individual's only > defense is that he and his software is too unimportant to be noticed. > Even assuming the patent in question was completely bogus (say, > obvious prior art), how many of you could afford to finance a court > fight against a major corporation to prove this? Can I have a show of > hands? > > Brave new world, indeed. > > // Ben -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
