Debian supports free java

One of the things every Java developer can do is to test their programs with free runtime and report the results. As a Debian Developer, and Java trainer, I'd like to help Free Java Software. So I made a web page where I'll put results of running little projects for my trainees with Free JVM's. I added a page to the Java.Debian.Net's Wiki: http://java.debian.net/index.php/DebianSupportsFreeJava and added a first link to the webpage where the results are: http://people.debian.org/~avdyk/freejava/

new kaffe snapshot from CVS HEAD in Debian unstable

kaffe (2:1.1.4.PRECVS5-1) unstable; urgency=low

* New upstream release (CVS HEAD):
* patch from Casey Marshall make it possible to run tomcat5 with kaffe
(closes: #281717), new upstream should also work with Linux kernel
2.6.9 (closes: #280664).
* Dalibor Topic fixed the build on IA64 (closes: #284177)
* debian/patches/main.c.patch: removed (applied upstream)
* debian/old-patches: removed because 00JNIPatch, 03SparcPatch, do not
apply no more.
* debian/unpatches: removed because 01Unix-JThread-_Signal_cPatch,
02SoundPatch, do not apply no more.
* debian/man/javah.kaffe.1: added (closes: #284034).

Please, test heavily, file bug reports (or re-open those which should not have been closed). If everything is ok, I'll ask on debian-release to let it go to Sarge if it's still possible

December TODO list!

I got to write it somewhere or I'll forgot!

1. Mauve Test Cases (january 6 2005: nearly done!.. some more tests in internal classes) for javax.swing.text.StringContent (and write the class)
2. Update Tomcat4.1.31 in Debian (january 6 2005: done)
3. Build Tomcat5 for Debian
4. Upload GNU JMI in Debian
5. Update ArgoUML in Debian
6. Update kaffe in Debian
7. Update gjdoc in Debian
8. Update GNU JAXP in Debian

Give us Dalibor back!

Three days without Dalibor commit on kaffe project! Give us Dalibor back!

RC Bug Squasher!

A lot of RC Bugs on java packages were due to a kaffe problem on x86. A new kaffe package has been uploaded. It's not perfect but it's getting better and I could build all these packages, so closed some FTBFS bugs: Bug#276387, Bug#231875, Bug#275878, Bug#277139, Bug#277141, Bug#277374, Bug#279375, Bug#280904. About kaffe, there are still some tests failures: jthreads-x86: 8 of 144 tests failed; jthreads-ppc: 62 of 144 tests failed; pthreads-x86: 9 of 144 tests failed; pthreads-ppc: 19 of 144 tests failed. There are also some Debian specific bugs I have to manage, any help welcome ;-)

kaffe progresses in Debian

Yes! New snapshot upload. The zip bug on powerpc has been fixed by Riccardo Mottola, Dalibor Topic and Michael Koch so Kaffe is now in a very good shape on powerpc! Also, lot of progresses have been made in other areas (kjc, awt, swing, bug fixes,...) but it seems bugs has been introduced in GNU JAXP. We still can not run Struts on Kaffe.
What next?

• bug fixed
• build with gcc-3.4, g++-3.4, libffi3-dev
• running Struts

Wonderful week!

Monday
First cooking courses with friends. Lot of wine, lot of fun, lot of learning...
Tuesday
Cook for my wife a part of what I learnt.
Wednesday
Rest.
Thursday
Concert with the conductor Daniel KAWKA and the first prize at the highly prestigious international Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 2003, Severin von ECKARDSTEIN (piano).
Friday
Friends for diner and concert from the father of our friends (french pop-poetic songs)
Saturday
Expo at Bruxelles from Karel Appel from CoBrA. (I think I'll visit the CoBrA Museum at Amstelveen, NL soon!..)

The man who was not here...

... well, this time I was ;-) chatting with Dalibor on #kaffe, it seems the 'jar on powerpc issue' could be resolved by merging the java.util.zip code from Classpath to Kaffe. After some explanations of the build system and the location of the classes, I did merge the 'zip' code into Kaffe, build the result and it worked! Dalibor will not accept the patch 'as is' but he told me he'll try to apply a solution in a few days. I'm waiting for some other patches and will package another far better, working on powerpc kaffe snapshot.

My Debian Day!

It's been a long time!.. so I decided to take one day of Debian development. It started yesterday with tests on the kaffe package, and upload of the new:

• commons-daemon package which announce the start of the work on the Tomcat5 packaging in Debian.

I went sleeping at 3am. Today:

• libxml-commons-resolver1.1-java: resolved the CatalogManager.properties bug
• commons-daemon: import to the Alioth's pkg-java project cvs repository
• libcommons-net-java: new upstream + new debian/watch file + updated in pkg-java's cvs
• libjazzy-java: resolved the AMD64 build bug + updated in pkg-java's cvs
• libjdom-java: imported to pkg-java's cvs
• libgnuinet-java: new upstream + new debian/watch file + updated in pkg-java's cvs
• libjexl-java: new upstream + new debian/watch file + updated in pkg-java's cvs
• libgnucrypto-java: new debian/watch file + updated in pkg-java's cvs
• libgnujaf-java: new debian/watch file + updated in pkg-java's cvs
• libgnumail-java: new debian/watch file + updated in pkg-java's cvs
• libgnujaxp-java: new debian/watch file + updated in pkg-java's cvs
• updated the tomcat5 alioth's tasks

I am Mario!

Like some Eric Schubert, Gergely Nagy, and Joshua Kwan, I made the VideoGame Test and...
I am Mario.
I like to jump around, and would lead a fairly serene and aimless existence if it weren't for my friends always getting into trouble. I love to help out, even when it puts me at risk. I seem to make friends with people who just can't stay out of trouble. What Video Game Character Are You?

Debian experimental kaffe runs Tomcat4 on powerpc!

Free Java environments are not as full as proprietary ones... but in some cases, they are far better! After having multiple problems with IBM's proprietary JDK on Powerpc, I'm managing to speed up my transition to Free Java JDK's/JRE's.
First, there is no Java plugin for Mozilla in the latest IBM's JDK on Powerpc, there is now gcjwebplugin, running on many architectures! For several weeks now IBM's JDK (1.4.1 and 1.4.2) does not run at all on my Debian/sid powerpc. I cannot run ant, tomcat, nothing. I got a javacore_blablabla file with a lot of debug information. SableVM, gic/gcj, Kaffe and JamVM already run Ant (nearly) without problem.

Update: a hack with an envvar is necessary: 'export JITC_PROCESSOR_TYPE=6'
The next peace I need is Tomcat4. It's now done (screenshot). The work around was to remove the xmlParserAPIs.jar and xercesImpl.jar from the tomcat4 directory (/usr/share/tomcat4/common/lib) and replace them with a symlink to gnujaxp.jar (in /usr/share/java). And nearly everything was fine (Struts does not seem to work, but all the servlet examples did work, and every JSP examples did work except two: one because the mail api was not in the tomcat classpath and the other because of an exception in org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service... I think it was the same exception that occured with Struts.
JDEE for Emacs seems very bounded to proprietary JDK's but I'd like to investigate a little more to have it working with free JDK's as I use it for sometimes now and I'm very happy with it. Another great environment that would be cool to run is Eclipse...
Long life to Free Java! ;-)

gcjwebplugin rocks!

Michael Koch told me gcjwebplugin entered Debian unstable yesterday on powerpc. Not yet available but apt-get source and rebuilt it myself just works on powerpc, thanks Michael (upstream and Debian Maintainer).
I tried it and found some bugs but I have also been surprised it works very well with an old applet. I was looking for 'etch' because I did not remember it from Toys Story and found this site: http://www.etch-a-sketch.com/html/onlineetch.htm with an 'Etch-A-Sketch' Applet. And it did work! ().
Many thanks Michael!

gjdoc progresses

Soon... I promise...

Aaron Spuler's Mozilla themes

After posting a screen shot from my Mozilla browser, several people asked me about the theme... The theme is called Apollo and it was made by Aaron Spuler. There are nice themes accessible from his site: MozThemes.tk

Kaffe status in Debian

I posted a summary with comments about the bugs of Kaffe in Debian. Some are Debian related, others are related to Kaffe (upstream)... Will we be in time for Sarge?..

Ten Days Off!..

Sunday @ Voorhuit: 10daysoff... strong! It's the third time we go there with my best friend. First year, we saw Idjut Boys (...) and a female dj from Paris (she did kick our ass!): Clementine; second years, we were completely wet dancing with 2ManyDJ's! This year, we saw a legend: Francois Kevorkian. As far as I know, he mixed only with his computer!.. What was the soft?! It could be mixxx but I'm afraid it's something proprietary :'(... who knows? We also danced on Luke Vibert (also known as Wagon Christ - last album: sorry i make you lush). He played music only with his Apple Powerbook 15"! What a live! Excellent!.. but what was the software?.. Rosegarden4? Ardour? The two lasts are in Debian... mixxx isn't yet. By the way, I got a lot of things to learn with Linux and Sound(s)... I hope a good start will be the OpenJay.org portal...

Debian-(free-)java front!

kaffe in testing
Kaffe entered to testing last night! This is a great news because a lot of the effort in MovingJavaToMain was based on building these java packages with Kaffe. Another good news is that a lot of these packages can now be build with SableVM (which is also in testing). We have two powerful free java virtual machines in main and in testing. Of course, there is also gcj/gij and a new virtual machine has just enter the pool, packaged by Michael Koch: jamvm.
libservlet2.3-java in main
The other great thing yesterday was the move of libservlet2.3-java from contrib to main. This will make it possible to move approximatively 5 packages from contrib to main!

MovingJavaToMain...

Four more Java packages have reach Debian main... libservlet2.3-java is in the queue... http://java.debian.net/index.php/MovingJavaToMain

kaffe in Debian is getting better... and better...

I'm glad to see a lot of people helping kaffe to build on most of the Debian arches. The new kaffe package is in the archive (thanks to ftpmasters and thanks to Doogie!), its design is more flexible and it's more easy to build it. Kaffe builds now on IA64, S390 and hppa (and of course i386 and ppc). Sparc and mipsel may follow...
I'm still waiting for libcommons-pool-java to enter in the pool in main, then I'll be able to move 3 more java packages from contrib to main.

Debian will be the first to package kaffe 1.1.5!

Kaffe 1.1.5 isn't out yet. A branch has been created and the official 1.1.5 should be out next week, but I can't wait! This release integrate a lot of improvements in gnujaxp, added gjdoc as a javadoc alternative etc... Thanks to Ean who set up a machine at Brainfood and thanks to Doogie who worked a lot on the package. I've uploaded the pre1.1.5 release but it may take some times because there are some new packages built by the source...

MovingJavaToMain progress

I sent an announcement about the status of the MovingJavaToMain Debian tasks. Thanks to Takashi Okamoto who did a lot with his packages.

All night long!

Paaaaarty!
It has been a long time I did not spend the whole night out! My wife and I went on the birthday of one of my best friend. A terrific night as you can see with the pictures. I saw friends (like Pocket and his girlfriend Clémentine, Nico who did not changed, Youh who will be travelling in South Corea next week for a year or more!, Axel's girlfriend Nathalie, Pipo, Jean-Pol, Phil, well known DJ Philippe Kosak, and another old school DJ I know for years!), some, I didn't meet for more than 5 years!.. Also Gilles, one of the best blues guitarist I know (maybe the only one I know but he is very good!), I didn't see him for years!.. The bad thing was we came home at 7.00am and I have to be on the tennis court at 9.00am!.. The other guy was not so good and stopped after I won 6-2 1-0!.. I came home at 8.00pm... Sunday was a hard day!..

Free Java Blog

Debian - GNU

This week must be cooler! I hope to work on GNU ClasspathX and my Debian packages to go on the Java Move to Main project!

Free Java

Nothing to add to the free-java blog of Tom Tromey!

Poelvoorde is 'Claude Francois'

I saw Podium last Friday and it's great! Poelvoorde is really a great actor (he'll be in the Jury of the Cannes Film Festival), but the film is more than just a one-man-show: Julie Depardieu (yes, the daughter of Gerard! ;-)) is beautiful and sincere; also Jean-Paul Rouve was just fantastic!

gnujaxp will stay gpl+linking exception

Thanks to Julian Scheid who wrote the gnu.xml.libxmlj.transform classes (+ C code). He agreed the FSF to be the copyright holder of his classes and to change the license to GPL+linking exception! I'll work on patches this week so it'll be possible to sync GNUJaxp in GNU Classpath and SableVM.

No Free Java Plugin for Mozilla (at the moment)

I did respond to a frequently ask question about the java plugin in Debian. The question comes once a week on debian-powerpc so I did write a page to explain the evolution of the project of Michael Koch http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/gcjwebplugin or an alternative with Konqueror. Happy reading: http://people.debian.org/~avdyk/no_free_java_plugin_for_mozilla.html

libcommons-collections-java to main

I've NMU libcommons-collections-java, closed some bugs and move it to main! http://java.debian.net/index.php/MovingJavaToMain

GNU-jaxp and xsl transformation

I've been working on something completely new to me: auto7ool5! Another completely new thing to me is C/C++ and JNI. But well, the java part seems to build just as it should and the jar file seems to be good... If someone can help to clean up configure.ac and Makefile.am... and also to build something like a f@# libxmlj.so, I'd be very glad! ;-) Here is the Release Candidate:
http://people.debian.org/~avdyk/gnu/jaxp-RC-avdyk.tgz
Thanks for your help ;-)
NOTE: When the whole thing will be OK, it'll be possible to get gjdoc in a better shape...

I'm a biped!

A week skiing at Risoul, France. Great time with friends but first morning I tried snowboard... My knees has swell two times! Back to ski for the rest of the week! ;-) The problem with snowboard (when you begin) is that you have fantastic sensations when you make some progress, but the more you progress, the more the falls hurt! I'm definitely a biped! ;-)

Languages and stuff

There has been some discussions about programming languages: Java versus C# versus C++ etc... But I think this site will help you to find the more powerful language for your own needs.
My preference is Whitespace:
Quote from the website:
What is Whitespace?
Most modern programming languages do not consider white space characters (spaces, tabs and newlines) syntax, ignoring them, as if they weren't there. We consider this to be a gross injustice to these perfectly friendly members of the character set. Should they be ignored, just because they are invisible? Whitespace is a language that seeks to redress the balance. Any non whitespace characters are ignored; only spaces, tabs and newlines are considered syntax.

War is not a solution

Boutros Boutros-Ghali was on a tv show in France this saturday (Tout le monde en Parle). He explained with his long experience in International Politics that "war was a nest for terrorists". Of course, it's hard to think about it just after the attack in Spain or other countries, but the idea seems really true and the different examples his gave (different wars in Africa etc) show he is right and there are other approaches to try to solve these kind of problems (terrorism, attacks, etc...).
As after the September 11 attacks, I always thought that 'bombing Afghanistan' was not a solution (and was more like a punishing expedition), I'm sure the response to terrorism must not be to be afraid but to integrate more easily and more deeply Muslims and other cultures in our occidental culture.

Excellent weekend! (FOSDEM)

Excellent weekend at the FOSDEM! I met Dalibor Topic and Mark Wielaard once more, Chris Gray, Stéphane and a lot of other folks from the classpath/kaffe/FreeJVMs world. Glad to meet Gadek and SGybas also (my first sponsor and my advocate)! Also, I've been afraid by a tall guy and did not realized he was Mister Jim Pick (Kaffe) ;-). The most important presentation we attented (with Stefan Gybas) was the gcj presentation by Tom Tromey. Gcj 'compile java sources to native code' will maybe drive our goals in Debian... (Note: Yes it's out dated but hey! I promise to add new entries more often!).

MovingJavaToMain

Moving Java To Main is one of the main focus of the debian-java community. To help this, I set up a wiki page at http://wiki.debian.net/: http://wiki.debian.net/index.cgi?MovingJavaToMain. Don't hesitate to help us to have a good free java envirronment in Debian!
Thanks for your support!

Moving debian-java packages to main!

I'll begin to audit some debian-java packages in contrib this weekend to build them with the latest kaffe in Debian (1.1.3) and with cdbs when they build with ant.
I hope I'll be able to put some libraries in main but the most important thing I'd like to achieve is to be able to make a web page with all the debian packages in contrib and the reason why they are in contrib.
If you want to help, don't hesitate ;)
debian-java AT lists.debian.org

Working on updating kaffe Debian package

Updating kaffe is really important for the debian-java community because it's an important part of the success of java in a free world.
Updating the 1.1.3 release will solve some 2 RC bugs and other bugs.
Yes it's an NMU, but it's too important to wait. I want a good kaffe in Sarge!