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David Herron wrote: |
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> Karl, I agree completely. |
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> |
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> We have been looking at this question for some time. Clearly in the JDK |
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> sources we have code that supports Linux, and we have code which |
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> supports SPARC, but not these two at the same time. It turns out to be |
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> a little difficult to bring those two together. |
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|
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I appreciate the engineering difficulties here, but I don't think they |
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are insurmountable given some time, motivation and elbow grease. |
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|
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> I would think that in the not too far distant future there could be |
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> project(s) like you say working together in the openjdk project to |
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> support the JDK on new architectures and maybe new operating systems. |
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> e.g. The Free BSD team and that ilk might want to collaborate with us |
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> more directly now that our licenses are more open. |
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> |
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> How would *you* prefer that the collaboration would work? |
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> |
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> I know our preference is for the collaboration to be in the bounds of |
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> the openjdk project site. The governance and contribution procedures |
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> are a work in progress at the moment. You can see on the openjdk |
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> project site the contribution process. So, e.g., if you had a |
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> Gentoo-specific source change to make, you could submit it through that |
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> contribution process. |
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|
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My experience with other projects, such as Eclipse, tells me that it |
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would be preferable to have one common repository upstream (that's with |
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you guys) for collecting and sharing patches used in the packaging process. |
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|
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It turns out that many patches used by distro A are also very useful for |
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distro B -- this is a pretty established fact by now. Another |
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established fact is that we (the package maintainers on various distros) |
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spend a lot of time digging through each other's repos and home pages |
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looking for interesting patches for common problems. This is pure waste |
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of time. |
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|
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With Eclipse, we're combating this with a new project, see |
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http://www.eclipse.org/proposals/linux-distro/ |
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|
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Basically, the Eclipse Linux Distro project is a staging ground for |
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fixes/patches/improvements to Eclipse that are specific to Linux (I |
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don't think we're against *BSD in any way -- they've just not been part |
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of the process so far). |
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|
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The patches that end up in the Eclipse "Linux Distro" project will not |
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be automatically placed into the main Eclipse code base. They will most |
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likely simmer in the Eclipse Linux Distro for some time, and during that |
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time, it's up to the various distros whether they want to apply it or not. |
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|
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Some patches might eventually make it into the main Eclipse code base, |
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many won't. But even for those that won't, chances are that they'll be |
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maintained as the main Eclipse code base evolves, since they are often |
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shared across distros, and because maintainers from the various distros |
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have accesss to the Linux Distro code base. |
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|
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Perhaps a similar model will work for the JDK (which is our primary |
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concern ATM -- other projects like J2EE might follow), say a "JDK Linux |
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Distro" subproject of the OpenJDK. |
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|
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However, it is vitally important to keep the barriers for accessing and |
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working on the code base in such a JDK Linux Distro low. I wouldn't mind |
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having to sign the necessary CAs to commit to the JDK Linux Distro |
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subproject, but I *would* mind if some Sun engineer needs to bless my |
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code every time I have a patch to share with the other packagers. "Patch |
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blessing" should only be necessary when code is taken from the JDK Linux |
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Distro staging ground and put into the OpenJDK proper. |
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|
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|
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Since the Eclipse Linux Distro project is still in its infancy, it's too |
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early to tell how well this model works, but if I were in the Sun JDK |
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team, I'd keep an eye out for it and see how well it turns out to work. |
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|
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"A beginning is a very delicate time", as some fictitious princess once |
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said. |
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|
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|
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Cheers, |
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|
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-- Karl T |
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-- |
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