you are in a maze of twisty java-clone projects, all alike

Posted Nov 14, 2006 22:34 UTC (Tue) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330)
Parent article: Apache project keeps pace with Java changes (ZDNet)

We had two separate Java projects in the GNU framework, gjc and Classpath, and managed to unite those (fortunately there wasn't that much overlap). We had IBM's Eclipse project, and the GNU folks and Eclipse project talked about how to unite all that code (which GPLv3 makes possible). And then there's this Apache thing, which I don't understand the justification for. And much of this will now be made moot by Sun's announcement (though they just want to do GPLv2, possibly raising another issue), unless the Apache people really, really want their own (under yet different terms).

Anyway, I guess four flavors of free Java beats 20-odd IRC front ends.

you are in a maze of twisty java-clone projects, all alike

Posted Nov 14, 2006 23:59 UTC (Tue) by mjw (subscriber, #16740) [Link]

Actually there are already 20-odd java-like projects :) But the twist here is that they are all specialisations of one kind or another based on the core GNU Classpath libraries and tools.

Strangely enough Harmony! was actually started by this same group of people as a way to also include the Apache group. Sadly then IBM walked in and it all took a different path. I wrote a guest article for LWN about that a while ago, Towards a free Java, explaining some of the difficulties faced back then and how the 20-odd projects came together around GNU Classpath over the years merging their code bases more and more. With a little analysis why our harmony effort back then failed to work out.

The consensus on Planet Classpath seems to be that we all would very much like to work together and colaborate with Sun on all this. Something made possible by Sun's very bold move to pick the GPL plus GNU Classpath exception for their OpenJDK project. Thanks for sharing Sun. That is what we call Harmony! :)