Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2001 08:41:51 +0930 From: Greg Lewis <glewis@eyesbeyond.com> To: Tim Liddelow <tim@ideasandassociates.com> Cc: Bill Huey <billh@gnuppy.monkey.org>, freebsd-java@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Contributing... Message-ID: <20010825084151.A82497@misty.eyesbeyond.com> In-Reply-To: <3B86D765.249C2214@ideasandassociates.com>; from tim@ideasandassociates.com on Fri, Aug 24, 2001 at 06:38:29PM -0400 References: <3B8688AA.6956F1BD@ideasandassociates.com> <20010824131403.A3036@gnuppy> <3B86D765.249C2214@ideasandassociates.com>
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On Fri, Aug 24, 2001 at 06:38:29PM -0400, Tim Liddelow wrote: > Bill Huey wrote: > > Yes, and I dumped on it in favor of a pthread implementation instead > > in light of the KSE effort and how LinuxThreading was hacked into the > > thread creation/destruction glue layer (wierd SIGCHLD stuff, etc...). > > > > This is what led to the current track for getting native threads working. > > The KSE effort seems promising, but my experience with -current is old now (I > haven't toyed with it since pre SMPng days..and I haven't been active on the > lists at all), and Julian seems to only be in the initial stages (compilation > going but unstable). I wish to focus on contributing to a rock solid, -stable > port of the recent JDKs and give FreeBSD the chance to show off its other > powers (great VM system, etc) in a Java environment. I can also leverage some > work I am doing here in the commercial sector without encumbrance because the > result will be utilised by us in production environments (this is probably > similar to some others here I hope!). I agree that -STABLE is definitely what we want to focus on. Apart from the fact that its used in production, -CURRENT is too much of a moving target for the current porting team's resources. > > > Also, what about HotSpot ? Has anyone attempted to port this to any of > > > the BSDs ? I'm looking at other JITs now. The latest TYA doesn't > > > build under the 1.3.1 kit. > > > > These are the two biggest items on my list while I'm in between jobs. > > > > The order of attack is native threading first and then HotSpot. IMO, > > both can be worked on simultaneously, but you absolutely have to have > > the threading solid (green, native) before you can even smoke test > > HotSpot. So getting HotSpot to compile would likely be the hard limit > > for progress until the surrounding JVM facilities were to solidify. > > I have been lightly following the pthread updates; I know a lot of fixes were > committed a few months back - how complete now is our pthread support ? I > agree with you that native thread support must be done first ... I was hoping > however to familiarise myself again with the byte code compiler, then take a > look at HotSpot and being to dissect it - but only initially from the point of > view of kernel differences between FreeBSD and Linux. I think the FreeBSD pthread support is pretty complete. Not only that, but its actively maintained by a number of developers who I've found to be very approachable about any problems and the like. > > Both the JVM thread (virtual machine craziness + language runtimes) and > > HotSpot (C++ based with tricky *everything* that come with JIT compilers > > cores) systems are non-trivial and it would take at least a number of > > weeks for an accomplished engineer (IMO) to be comfortable with virtual > > machine abstractions and do basic work with it. > > Sure. But we have to start somewhere. I don't promise to be able to make > everything happen - but if we begin, maybe we will gather more interest and > hopefully get some momentum going. Usually things don't get done in this > space not because of experienced people (to a point!), but usually because of > motivational and coordinational factors. Can we get any help from anyone at > Sun who did the Linux port of HotSpot ? Nate ? There is no reason one couldn't start straight on HotSpot to at least try and get it compiling. Be sure to have polished up on both your C++ and x86 assembler though :). BTW, no need to promise to get everything happening, there are people ready to help in the porting team :). -- Greg Lewis Email : glewis@eyesbeyond.com Eyes Beyond Phone : (801) 765 1887 Information Technology Web : http://www.eyesbeyond.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-java" in the body of the message
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