Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1999 16:17:18 -0700 From: Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com> To: java@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: JDK1.2 active porters sought Message-ID: <199901242317.QAA02474@mt.sri.com>
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At this point in time, I know of no 'active' work occurring in the
JDK1.2 port. That doesn't mean no-one is doing it, but that all of the
interested parties are either too busy or have not recently expressed
anything to me and/or the list about their work.
If you have a desire to work on the FreeBSD JDK1.2 port, please send
email to me and/or the list expressing your desire to do the port.
Note, because *nothing* exists at this time except the JDK1.1 diffs
(which are publically available) we do not need testers or people who
aren't programmers.
What you need to become a porter is:
1) A copy of the JDK1.2 sources. Checkout www.javasoft.com. Ignore the
fact that the 'education source license' has JDK1.1 written all over
it. If you submit it, you will be given access to the JDK1.2 sources.
2) Extensive knowledge about C programming. This is not for the faint
of heart. Object formats, shared libraries, linkers, loaders, and
such are all important at this point. Note however that you can look
at the JDK1.1 patches for reference, so you don't have to guess at
what needs to be done, and those patchs should provide a helpful
reference.
3) Time to actually do something. If you don't have time to help, don't
bother volunteering, hoping that you'll be able to find time. If you
don't have time now, you probably won't have it later.
This may seem harsh, but good intentions to help all too often fall
by the wayside when work/family intrude. They are more important
than this project.
4) You must have installed either 2.2-stable or 3.0-stable. If you're
running any version of FreeBSD prior to 2.2.6, you'll need to upgrade
unless you *really* know what you are doing. And, if you do you
should be running a more recent version. :)
5) Desire to generate/share patches with others. If you don't have time
to do the work and then share it with others, then go ahead and do
the port on your own. The porting group needs people willing to
actively accept and modify other's patches, as well as submit their
own when needed.
What not to worry about:
1) If you don't have a copy of ELF/Motif, don't worry. That problem
will work itself out, and at this point Lesstif will work fine for
the initial port.
2) If you're not running -current. Don't worry about this. We need
'two' ports of JDK1.2, one to 2.2.* and one to 3.0. As much as
the FreeBSD project claims that 3.0 is now -stable, I plan on leaving
my development boxes running 2.2 for some time.
3) I'm not running -stable. Don' worry about this either. We also need
to create a JDK for ELF/3.0, which will be slightly different than
the one for 2.2 because of the poll/select changes, as well as
a.out/ELF changes.
4) A great network connection. The sources will be maintained via CVS,
but even if you don't have a great connection, it's not too painful
to stay synchronized once the initial hit is taken.
If you don't want to start doing a JDK1.2 port, we could use volunteers
(with source access of course) willing to take the JDK1.1 diffs and make
a 3.0/ELF JDK1.1.7 port. Using both the FreeBSD and Linux diffs
together it should be fairly straighforward to build a version for 3.0.
Once that is done I'd like to merge the two source trees together, which
should make doing the JDK1.2 port easier (if that should happen before
JDK1.2 gets going...)
Whaddya say folks? Lets' get going on it!
Nate
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