I'm dropping the Debian Java package maintainers from the CC: list. Individuals can join in if they want.
Andi is correct, Java Lucene 1.4.3 compiles ok with a Free Software toolchain. Specifically we use kaffe. Getting this to work took a lot of time and effort. It is unknown at this time whether the release candidate for Java Lucene 1.9 can be built using kaffe. >Once there is a Debian Java Lucene 1.9 source package available, the PyLucene >1.9 package could be made to depend on it, unpack it, apply the patches, build >it (and not install it) and then build itself. Seems pretty straightforward to >me. Sorry, that's not how it works. Currently Java Lucene 1.4.3 is in Debian. That does not mean the Java Lucene 1.4.3 source code is available to be used as a build dependency. A more likely scenario is what Matthew described - snapshot Java Lucene source code and make that part of the PyLucene source package. Yet Another Option (what are we on now, 5? 6?) is for Debian to patch it's version of Java Lucene 1.9 to be compatible with PyLucene. This only makes sense if the patches are benign - i.e. do not significantly interfere with other users of Java Lucene. For example, the eclipse people would go berserk if we broke their build. Let's try to boil this down into an immediate todo list: 1) Find out if Java Lucene 1.9 can compile with kaffe [JB? Barry? Anyone?] 2) Look for other issues in the current PyLucene package [JB] 3) ??? In any case, my vote is to pick an approach that gets something in Debian sooner rather than later. Programmer attention span is a rare commodity and we should strike while it is hot. Jeff
