Re: GNU Classpath Linuxtag meeting minutes

[Sascha Brawer]

Mark Wielaard <address@hidden> wrote on Mon, 14 Jul 2003 00:46:08 +0200:

> http://www.dandelis.ch/development/fonts/

I've updated the page to reflect the current state. I did not bother
updating the code snapshot, since I'd like to clean up things and bring
my implementation a bit further. If you want the code right now, please
write me.
 
>  Tim Tyler his public domain, pure java font rendering program was
>  mentioned <http://fonteditor.org/>

I've written to Tim, and he said he would not mind us using his code.
I'll make sure that the legal issues get resolved; Mark receives a copy
of everything.


>- Aicas is working on some RMI fixups.

In the context of RMI, maybe not everyone knows that there also exists a
variant which does RMI over IIOP. It uses the CORBA protocol for RMI, but
without using CORBA IDL. Actually, CORBA had to be extended to cope for
this, but it now is part of the standard. Of course, I don't know whether
this is relevant for Aicas -- in any case, [1] has more information. But
implementing RMI-IIOP seems like a big task, unless parts of some free
Java ORB can be used. IMHO, the main advantage is that IIOP is a better
protocol, and that it is possible to replace either client or server by
something not written in Java. There exist CORBA bindings for relatively
exotic languages, including Lisp, Ada, Objective C, or Smalltalk. There
also is an LGPLed project for IIOP on .NET [2].


>- We should have a standard NotYetImplementedException. Just returning
>  something random (like null) from stubs is really not
>  acceptable. Kaffe for example has one.

What about java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException?


>- We really have a complete framework now to run significatly large
>  applications. Getting semi-free application written in the java
>  language (but which currently uses a proprietary runtime
>  environment) running with a free VM is a great way to test and/or
>  expand our classes and keeps us focused on the needs of free software
>  developers.

Georg Greve said at LinuxTag that he would not mind including a text
about Classpath in one of the next issues of Brave GNU World.  I've heard
that [3] was perceived by some people as a statement that Free Software
developers should stay away from Java, although the text doesn't say
this. IMHO, we'd best send him a draft text for the column -- any
volunteers? I think this would be important.

[1] http://java.sun.com/products/rmi-iiop/
[2] http://www.gnu.org/brave-gnu-world/issue-49.en.html
[3] http://iiop-net.sourceforge.net/

Best,

-- Sascha

Sascha Brawer, address@hidden, http://www.dandelis.ch/people/brawer/