maybe some people on this list might be able to give good answers to Aslak' s questions (they're at the bottom of the forwarded email).
- robert
Begin forwarded message:
From: Aslak Hellesøy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue Mar 25, 2003 01:54:42 PM Europe/London To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: XDoclet, XJavaDoc, Apache and Licensing Reply-To: "Jakarta General List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hello,
The XDoclet project (http://xdoclet.sourceforge.net/) is considering applying for Jakarta/Apache membership. Before we get into that process, we'd like to clarify some licensing issues we think we might have.
XJavaDoc (a sub project of XDoclet) is a library that parses Java source
files and makes information about the source files (including comments and
JavaDoc tags) available via an API. The XJavaDoc API is similar to the
com.sun.javadoc API, which is the core of Sun's JavaDoc engine. XJavaDoc is
used in favour of Sun's JavaDoc core because it is faster, more feature
rich, and we have complete control over the source code.
XJavaDoc and JavaDoc offer very similar functionality, and have similar APIs.
The main differences are:
1) XJavaDoc returns java.util.Collection where JavaDoc returns arrays. 2) XJavaDoc uses Java Bean style naming conventions for methods. JavaDoc doesn't. 3) XJavaDoc delegates all JavaDoc comment information to an XDoc class. JavaDoc uses an inheritance model. 4) XJavaDoc's parser is implemented with JavaCC, JavaDoc uses proprietary sun.* classes from the javac compiler. 5) XJavaDoc's API does not use or implement any of the com.sun.javadoc classes. 6) XJavaDoc has a richer API than JavaDoc.
Furthermore:
7) XJavaDoc only has runtime dependencies to Jakarta Commons Logging and
Jakarta Commons Collections.
8) XJavaDoc's API: http://xdoclet.sourceforge.net/xjavadoc/apidocs/ (Look at
XJavaDoc, XClass, XMethod, XDoc and XTag for starters).
9) XJavaDoc in ViewCVS:
http://cvs.xdoclet.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/xdoclet/xjavadoc/
10) XJavaDoc in CVS: xjavadoc CVS module:
http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=31602
We believe that these differences are sufficient in order to avoid potential
licensing problems with Sun.
QUESTIONS TO THE JAKARTA TEAM:
1) Can anyone with more knowledge about licenses tell me whether XJavaDoc is
in violation with Sun's license for JavaDoc?
2) Would it be fair to claim that XJavaDoc is *not* a clean room
implementation of JavaDoc?
3) Is there anything we should do (from a legal perspective) before we start
working on a proposal for Jakarta/Apache membership for XDoclet/XJavaDoc?
Best regards, Aslak Hellesøy - The XDoclet Team.
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