From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 31355 invoked by alias); 7 May 2009 20:24:18 -0000 Received: (qmail 31344 invoked by uid 22791); 7 May 2009 20:24:17 -0000 X-SWARE-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,SPF_PASS X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from yx-out-1718.google.com (HELO yx-out-1718.google.com) (74.125.44.158) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.43rc1) with ESMTP; Thu, 07 May 2009 20:24:11 +0000 Received: by yx-out-1718.google.com with SMTP id 36so518965yxh.26 for ; Thu, 07 May 2009 13:24:09 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.90.34.11 with SMTP id h11mr2159035agh.4.1241727848923; Thu, 07 May 2009 13:24:08 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ?192.168.1.103? (CPE-65-26-197-247.wi.res.rr.com [65.26.197.247]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id 32sm110620aga.44.2009.05.07.13.24.06 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Thu, 07 May 2009 13:24:07 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <4A0350F1.1080102@gmail.com> Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 20:24:00 -0000 From: Sal User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.21 (Windows/20090302) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Andrew Haley CC: java@gcc.gnu.org Subject: Re: GCJ with OpenJDK Java API instead of GNU Classpath References: <4A020407.2090306@gmail.com> <4A02A70C.3030101@redhat.com> In-Reply-To: <4A02A70C.3030101@redhat.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-IsSubscribed: yes Mailing-List: contact java-help@gcc.gnu.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: java-owner@gcc.gnu.org X-SW-Source: 2009-05/txt/msg00029.txt.bz2 Andrew Haley wrote: > It's all GPL + exception, so there are no licence difficulties. > > This would be an excellent thing to do, but it would be difficult. In > particular, class loading and class initialization are done in very > different ways, and this would all need to be rewritten. > > I'd love someone to do this, but I don't want them to be under any illusion > about how difficult it might be. > > Andrew. > So it should be challenging then, great :) Thanks for all the feedback, I'm glad to hear there are others who seem to like the idea as well. I wasn't sure if this hadn't been started yet due to some legal issues, or otherwise. Sounds like its just something that needs a little elbow grease. I started some preliminary work - just to get a feel for what might be entailed. What I was thinking as a general plan of attack: 1) - Obtain/extract a copy of the Java sources from a standard/official Sun release. Just to start working from a clean slate since it is an effort towards maximum compatibility. I've noticed that not all classes are actually from a simple source-tree extract, some are generated by the build process (so I'm still trying to get through this...) 2) - Isolate a subset of the sources to get gcj-openjdk port started. possibly: java.lang.* (and all dependancies) at first, then the other fundamental things; java.io.*, java.util.* etc. Although open for suggestions here of course. 3) - Compile the pieces from 2) with GCJ, add in more packages as things build. 4) - Somehow, maintain releases for it all as things progress, so people can grab current work and collaborate. I can do so much as to zip/upload snapshots when stuff starts working... but maybe others have much better ideas or resources here? I've got a feeling it won't be an overnight process, so it would be a big help to allow for as many hands on deck as possible. -- I'm currently trying to make it all the way through the openjdk build process, to get at the .java sources, and isolate the JNI parts needed for a working library. Possibly if anyone has already done this let me know - as it doesn't seem other parts are very critical - (hotspot, etc.) to get running, since we're just replacing Classpath initially. Looking forward to any ideas/comments! Thanks much, - Sal