Attention Java Maintainers: This Effects You
This is a recap of an ad-hoc discussion a number of Java maintainers had a few minutes ago in #debian-java concerning our direction with regards to including native GCJ compiled Jar files in our packages. Brief overview: gcj-4.0 is now in experimental. What it gives us is the ability to package native binary .so files along side their .jar counterparts for usage with gij (the GCJ interpreter, a virtual machine). When these .so files are present (in the correct location, registered with the correct mechanism) gij will load them automatically and use them in the place of the corresponding .jar file. The main motivation for this is speed. There is no JIT overhead involved and it runs native, not interpreted. It is worth noting that the Kaffe folks want to integrate support for this binary interface into Kaffe. This begs the question then: How do we make these native .so files available in our packages to our users. A number of ideas were considered: a) Include the .so along with the .jar in the same deb. b) Create a separate package for the .so. The first one (a) can be discounted because it would convert every Java package into a binary: arch package. This isn't feasible for obvious reasons: we like archive space! The second one is the best one. It minimizes archive space. It will hit the buildds however, as it requires the binary-indep build process in order to run binary-arch. The -java package would ideally Recommend the second package. I would like to name the secondary native packages with a -jbi prefix (Java Binary Interface). Some people like the name -bcabi because that is what the GCJ folks tend to refer to it as. BC ABI: Binary Compatible Application Binary Interface. I don't think bcabi is descriptive at all. Of course, all of this requires buy-in from every Debian Java maintainer. Please respond with questions and/or comments! -- Jerry Haltom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
