On Sun, 2006-12-24 at 22:03 +0100, Leon Rosenberg wrote: > > Well yes, but maybe this is for a reason, like it simply doesn't work > with another version?
Good point. If that is the case, we depend on an older version that does work. And/or we report back to upstream with patches or etc so the sources can be modified to work with newer versions of dependencies. > That's not quite true :-) Each day there are at least 2-3 people on > the tomcat irc channel claiming having problems with tomcat, which > results in using package from a distro or gcj. Not all from gentoo > though :-) Well jasonb on the Tomcat IRC channel knows me pretty well. Even met him in person this last summer in CA. Pretty sure he will forward any Gentoo related chatter on IRC to the proper Gentoo channels. I have requested this, and if any here are on IRC and see someone talking about Tomcat on Gentoo. Send them our/my way please. Saves us all grief :) > Exactly there we have a problem. If I have 2 apps demanding different > versions of stuff, I don't want to break the first by simply > installing the second :-) Another good point. On Gentoo we do what we call slotting. For example Tomcat is slotted, 5, 5.5, and 6. So one could have all three installed. Same goes for dependencies. So we can make sure we have the right versions of dependencies. Not to toot our own horn. But we really have allot of revolutionary stuff going on in Gentoo with regard to Java. There is so much more than stated here. Most of this stuff like versions of dependencies, or slotting are core Gentoo concepts. Nothing specific to Java. But we have all kinds of Java specific goodies, tools, and a very well thought out and planned system. > So you have a complex automatic regression test suite to ensure that > your apps will run in the next version? Than I assume you have never > shiped a 5.0.x version above 5.0.19, since there was never a working > version in 5.0. branch after 5.0.19. Not sure what you mean there. There was an official 5.0.28 release. However I came in around the Tomcat 5.5.17 days, and at that point anything 5.0.x was quite out dated. Although I have run Tomcat since leaving JRun back in the 3.x days. Just not on Gentoo, was RH back then. Tomcat on Gentoo was just not being maintained and fallen behind. But as far as regression testing. We don't get crazy with that. Again we are a all volunteer effort. We tests as best we can. We either stick stuff in an overlay or in the unstable branch of our portage repository for users to test out and provide feedback on or etc. Then if a package goes 30 days in the tree with no bugs, it can be stabilized. Might sound crazy to leave it up to users, but that's how TC 6.0.x is being developed and tested right now. This is how open source stuff works. Rarely is there a corp entity behind all this, with test tools, and etc. > Than gentoo is a lot better than debian or suse. With regard to Java, there is no implementation in the world like what we have on Gentoo. Again not bragging, go look at our implementations with like our java-config tool. We have system vms for running apps, compile time vm's. We allow control over source/target during building, and so much cool, important, and useful stuff. I really don't recall how I ever went on without it all :) > But what my post is really about is: distros are good for stuff you > don't want to mess around with, like kernel, standard services or > security patches. But as soon as you seriously work with java, the > distros aren't sufficent. Gentoo just might be. Take a look. There really is quite allot going on, but very few of us making that happen. Help is always welcomed and appreciated. > I assume a vlc developer doesn't work with vlc or codec packages from > the distros either. Not sure, no comment due to lack of knowledge there ;) > > Nevertheless merry XMax and a Happy New Year :-) Yes, same here to all those that celebrate xmas. If you don't celebrate the new year, something is wrong with you :) -- William L. Thomson Jr. Gentoo/Java
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