[ Late reply due to backlog. ] On Sun, Sep 02, 2001 at 06:13:04PM -0500, Ben Burton wrote: > Okay. I have a new proposal for java-common, namely the scripts > /usr/bin/whichjava and /usr/bin/whichjavac. > > What these do is take the given Java interpreter/compiler and spit out > properties such as which variant they represent (jikes, kaffe, whatever) and > where the bootstrap classes are.
This is a neat idea--there really should be a standard way to classify and query the capabilities of a VM or compiler. I would be happy to see it used in order to identify fundamental incompatibilites. However, I would still be unhappy to see this used to work around packaging problems or as a substitute for the lack of sufficient policy on such basic matters as what a java or javac alternative should do. Java in Debian is still new enough that we should be able to standardize these things before chaos sets in. I'm disappointed that people aren't very interested in solving these problems on the policy side. On the other hand, nobody else has objected, so maybe I'm just standing in the way of realistic pragmatism. After all, you're the one doing the work right now. :-) Andrew
