Re: Apache should join the open source java discussion

2004-03-18 Thread Serge Knystautas
Leo Simons wrote:
Key ASF individuals are joining these discussions, on weblogs and 
various discussion forums. But the ASF as a whole is silent.
In lieu of forming a statement for the ASF as a whole, what about 
organizing/encouraging/guiding people who want to participate?  Maybe 
specific resources that should be targetted, such as where the most 
active and/or productive discussions are taking place.

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Re: Apache should join the open source java discussion

2004-03-18 Thread Geir Magnusson Jr
On Mar 18, 2004, at 8:16 AM, Leo Simons wrote:

Something big is stirring in the java world. There's talks between Sun 
and IBM about releasing an open source version of java. There's talks 
between the linux desktop movers about adopting java as the glue that 
binds the major desktop projects together.

Key ASF individuals are joining these discussions, on weblogs and 
various discussion forums. But the ASF as a whole is silent.

Apache is one of the biggest open source communities, and the leader 
of the pack when it comes to open source java.

I think the Apache community should work together on an open letter to 
Sun, IBM, and the rest of the open source community stating our shared 
position on the subject. Like Havoc Pennington writes 
(http://ometer.com/desktop-language.html), the Community Should 
Decide and It's time to start the discussion.

WDYT?
The ASF has always been a proponent for 'open source java', and while 
I'm glad to see the rest of the world catching up, I believe the path 
we are on is fundamentally a good one, and we shouldn't deviate too far 
from it.

Here's something I wrote a little while ago for the members list, 
describing what we do and will do :

1) Keep working to make TCKs available to ASF projects that implement 
JSRs, and when needed, infrastructure to run the TCKs.  We cover the 
spectrum - from smaller WS stuff (including something for J2ME, IIRC), 
to the big mosnster, J2EE.  The main activity is getting TCKs in the 
hands of non-members to use in ASF projects, something thats just 
requiring some legal paperwork.  Given that we'll have a larger and 
larger group using TCKs, willing to fix them if given the chance, I see 
oppo for OSS-ing TCKs.  Maybe I'm a dreamer.  (Note that new the 
proposed JSR 241 for Groovy is going to be an OSS TCK and OSS RI).

2) Bring RIs here to the ASF.  We have a good tradition of this 
already, Tomcat and JSP for example, and we need to continue it, either 
by taking on ownership of existing RIs, such as we are working on for 
JavaMail, or hosting RIs for EGs on which the ASF has a rep (or not).  
This will tend to force the open spec issue, as you can't get the 
free help of an OSS community if they can't read the spec and know 
the motivations behind APIs.

3) Do what we can to connect the various JSR-implementors in the OSS 
community.  For example, we'd like to connect all J2EE implementors, 
both OSS and non-OSS (so JBoss would be invited), to talk 
confidentially with each other about issues they face to pass the TCK.  
This would expose the OSS communities w/ the commercial community in a 
deep, technical way, which I think will help the commercial crowd form 
an accurate picture of OSS.

We are the only open source entity on the Executive Committee of the 
Java Community Process.  The efforts of the ASF (w/ Jason as rep) 
resulted in pro-OSS changes in a de-facto international standards 
group.  These changes included free JCP participation for individuals, 
academics and non-profits, the ability to actually create a TCK and RI 
under an OSS license, and the creation of the scholarship program for 
individuals, academics and non-profits to get TCKs and RIs free of 
charge w/ free support to certify open source projects.  One very 
visible result of this is that the ASF and ObjectWeb are both J2EE 
licensees, and working to create certified open-source J2EE stacks.

Since this recent brouhaha started, the intention is to get involved 
(me wearing the VP JCP and VP Jakarta hats makes me itch to do 
something :)  At first I wanted to make a public statement too, but 
after thinking about it for a while, and since we had a nice quote from 
Brian in the first news cycle, I put that aside for a little while.  
This is a somewhat tricky issue due to the compatibility concerns and 
politics involved, and it's clear that we can be most effective if

a) we are sure to continue to be a neutral party in what is currently 
visible as a Sun vs IBM public pissing match - IOW, we don't pile on 
Sun (nor ignore IBM)

b) we completely understand the issues facing all sides (well, both 
sides, Sun and IBM, as I don't really care what ESR's issues are...)

To that end, I've been working privately (w/ JCP hat on) with a few 
people, and wish to continue that way for a little while.  I don't want 
this to appear as anything more than me just talking to people - not an 
official ASF action by any means - and I really wanted to keep quiet 
about it, but your post brought this front and center.

I think the best thing that ASF community members can do for now, until 
the next news flareup, is in blogs, conversations etc, is point out how 
much the ASF does wrt 'open source java' - how this isn't a new idea 
and we're working hard to make it happen.  And we're doing it not in 
the press, but where the rubber meets the road - through code and 
community.  This isn't a meme to be planted - just a fact to 
disseminate. :)

geir

--
Geir Magnusson Jr  

Re: Apache should join the open source java discussion

2004-03-18 Thread Danny Angus





 What about starting by making sure Apache java projects _do_ work with
 the 2 open source JVMs that are mentioned in the
 article ?

This is a fine idea, if we're bending the rules to the extent that our
stuff won't run on any specifications compliant JVM we should address that,
particularly so where it is an OS JVM.

Conversely where our stuff doesn't work on an OS JVM because the JVM is at
fault we should feed that back to the developers so they can make their
project stronger.

I hate to think how many defects have been identified and resolved in Sun's
JVM as a result of ASF projects, lets make that same benefit available to
OS projects too.

d.



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Re: Apache should join the open source java discussion

2004-03-18 Thread Leo Simons
Geir Magnusson Jr wrote:
the intention is to get involved snip/ really wanted to keep quiet
about it, but your post brought this front and center.
little did I know! See what happens when stuff happens on private 
mailing lists? Duplication of effort :-P

I'll happily shut up, since you're obviously on top of things. And 
thanks for letting us know you're on top of things :D

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cheers,
- Leo Simons

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RE: Apache should join the open source java discussion

2004-03-18 Thread Noel J. Bergman
 What about starting by making sure Apache java projects _do_ work with
 the 2 open source JVMs that are mentioned in the article ?

Which two?  I've had a thought to try testing James under gcj at some point.
RedHat has already done a whole bunch of Java-based Apache projects with
gcj.

--- Noel


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Re: Apache should join the open source java discussion

2004-03-18 Thread Geir Magnusson Jr
sheepish
I wasn't subscribed to community@ until now, so if there's something 
there that wasn't xposted to general@, let me know...
/sheepish

More inline :

On Mar 18, 2004, at 11:21 AM, Leo Simons wrote:

Geir Magnusson Jr wrote:
the intention is to get involved snip/ really wanted to keep quiet
about it, but your post brought this front and center.
little did I know! See what happens when stuff happens on private 
mailing lists? Duplication of effort :-P
LOL

it wasn't on a private list.  There was some informal discussion, and I 
kept meaning to bring it up to the community in general...

I'll happily shut up, since you're obviously on top of things. And 
thanks for letting us know you're on top of things :D
I won't claim to be on top of anything yet, but certainly will keep 
trying...

geir

--
cheers,
- Leo Simons

---
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IoC Component Glue  -- http://jicarilla.org/
Articles  Opinions -- http://articles.leosimons.com/
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 people wouldn't obey the rules.
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Re: Apache should join the open source java discussion

2004-03-18 Thread Geir Magnusson Jr
On Mar 18, 2004, at 11:06 AM, Costin Manolache wrote:

Serge Knystautas wrote:

Leo Simons wrote:

Key ASF individuals are joining these discussions, on weblogs and 
various discussion forums. But the ASF as a whole is silent.


In lieu of forming a statement for the ASF as a whole, what about 
organizing/encouraging/guiding people who want to participate?  Maybe 
specific resources that should be targetted, such as where the most 
active and/or productive discussions are taking place.

What about starting by making sure Apache java projects _do_ work with 
the 2 open source JVMs that are mentioned in the
article ?  That would be a statement, much better than we like open 
source java, but our software doesn't run on it because it doesn't
really matter.
Perfect - this is the way that the ASF has always supported open-source 
java - by actually doing it...

geir

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Re: Apache should join the open source java discussion

2004-03-18 Thread Costin Manolache
Noel J. Bergman wrote:
What about starting by making sure Apache java projects _do_ work with
the 2 open source JVMs that are mentioned in the article ?


Which two?  I've had a thought to try testing James under gcj at some point.
RedHat has already done a whole bunch of Java-based Apache projects with
gcj.
Well, if you read the article that started the thread... You won't like 
it... The other open source java virtual machine is ... Mono.

I think supporting GCJ and maybe kaffe would be good enough to start.

And regarding Danny's comment - yes, testing and reporting bugs is the 
best solution, but just like we worked around bugs in Sun's VM, we 
should also try to work around bugs in the open source VMs, at least 
until the bugs are fixed ( or even better - until patches we send get 
included into the JVM CVS ! :-).

At the moment Classpath project provides an almost complete 
implemnetation of the JDK1.3 ( with a lot of JDK1.4 ). And the same 
implementation is shared by all open source VMs that I know.

Costin

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RE: Apache should join the open source java discussion

2004-03-18 Thread Noel J. Bergman
 What about starting by making sure Apache java projects _do_ work with
 the 2 open source JVMs that are mentioned in the article ?
 Which two?  I've had a thought to try testing James under gcj at some
point.
 RedHat has already done a whole bunch of Java-based Apache projects with
 gcj.
 Well, if you read the article that started the thread... You won't like
 it... The other open source java virtual machine is ... Mono.

The author failed to list several Open Source JVMs.  Potentially the most
promising overall, is IBM's Jikes RVM.  I think it would be fine if the GUMP
Project wanted to use Jikes RVM as part of their testing on the GUMP server.
Depending upon how long each run takes, I could see GUMP doing runs with
each of several JVMs, if the GUMP PMC felt that such compatibility testing
was of interest.  That would be particularly helpful if, as I hope, we get a
JVM and Java class library here soon, but until the Software Grant is in
Jim's file cabinet, I'm not counting chickens.

See: http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/classpath/2003-04/msg00038.html for a
one year old summary of IKVM vs gcj vs Jikes RVM running Eclipse 2.1.  The
Jikes RVM is under the Common Public License.  There seems to be a problem
with some of IBM's web sites today, but this URL works:
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-jalapeno/.

Personally, I've been planning to try James under GCJ, because I would like
to see the impact of AOT native code compilation.

 At the moment Classpath project provides an almost complete
 implemnetation of the JDK1.3 ( with a lot of JDK1.4 ). And
 the same implementation is shared by all open source VMs
 that I know.

The quality has been uneven, but is apparently good enough to run Tomcat,
Ant, and several others.  IBM's Jikes RVM uses Classpath.

Classpath is GPL, with a binary distribution clause.  Having corresponded
with some of the Classpath developers, I know that their expressed intent is
for it to be non-viral when distributed with non-GPL applications.  I don't
know what official stance the FSF takes on that, though.

--- Noel


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