Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 00:53:18 +0930 (CST) From: Greg Lewis <glewis@trc.adelaide.edu.au> To: Michael Robinson <robinson@netrinsics.com> Cc: freebsd-java@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Alpha JDK 1.2.2 JPDA extension 1 Message-ID: <200008021523.AAA23161@ares.trc.adelaide.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <200008020850.QAA32110@netrinsics.com> from Michael Robinson at "Aug 2, 2000 04:50:45 pm"
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Hi Michael,
> Might it not be a more efficient use of limited resources to try to keep
> FreeBSD Linux emulation up to the task of running the official Sun Linux
> releases?
>
> Since the latest 1.3 JDK beta mostly runs already on BSD, with dramatically
> improved HotSpot performance, it seems silly to keep on slugging through alpha
> releases of nearly-obsolete technology. Furthermore, any improvements to
> Linux emulation benefit not only Java users, but users of all the other
> binary-only software packages being released for Linux.
Actually, the latest patchset (and probably patchset 9 as well) could
probably have been tagged as beta. Personally, I'd like to get rid of
the redrawing problem some people have before making that jump though.
I'm not quite sure how you can term the JDK 1.2.2 as "nearly-obsolete"
though when it is the current _release_ from Sun for both Linux and
Solaris and when Blackdown have announced their final release of the
JDK 1.2.2 (with 1.3 to come sometime down the track) on the same day.
While I respect your opinion in regards to the Linux emulation, I obviously
have a different one :). Certainly both the Linux JDK released by
Blackdown (I've never gotten the official Sun 1.2.2 one to work) and the
FreeBSD "linuxulator" are both excellent work. However, I would ask you
to consider the following issues:
(a) Since I would be using the Linux JDK, any use of JNI that I make requires
that I build all the native code with the Linux development tools.
For complex and large JNI using applications such as Swarm
(www.swarm.org) this means having a large Linux installation and
spending time dealing with any the Linux rpm and development tool
issues that I thought I'd avoided by using FreeBSD. At this point
I'd not only have a huge pain in the neck, I'd also be wondering
why I didn't just install a Linux distro :(.
(b) Lets say an excellent kernel thread interface (for instance) develops
during the 5.0 production cycle. Its everything you'd want and is
perfectly suited for implementing native threads for the JDK. But
alas, it can't be taken advantage of as there is no native port of
the JDK.
(c) The "limited resources" in question here is volunteer time. The
volunteers may feel that (i) they don't have the skills to work on
the Linux emulator, and (ii) its their time and they'd actually
like to spend it on a native JDK port :).
Ok, so its late and I'm possibly not putting this as eloquently as I might,
but my opinion is that although the ability to run the Linux JDK's under
emulation is incredibly useful, ultimately only a native port will do :).
--
Greg Lewis glewis@trc.adelaide.edu.au
Computing Officer +61 8 8303 5083
Teletraffic Research Centre
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