beecrypt-java (Was: rawhide report: 20050207 changes)

[Nicolas Mailhot]

Le lundi 07 février 2005 à 23:01 +0100, Dag Wieers a écrit :

> Well, I'm happy that perl packages have a seperate namespace and I would 
> love python, mono and java packages pursue this further than they do (even 
> without a CPAN alike infrastructure).
> 
> Does Jpackage have 1000 java-class packages ? Because I'm not arguing to 
> have everything java-based to fit this scheme, only packages that extend 
> the java 'platform'. Just like perl-modules, python-classes or for that 
> matter xmms-plugins...

Unfortunately with java very often lib = leaf app. The jar is the lib
and with a small shell script that is often not worth spinning out in a
separate package you get you get the app.

Java is much less organised than perl or python (more accurately Java
FOSS evolved at the fringes of Sun's closed core) naming is pretty much
a mess except for some big projects like jakarta.

So you won't get an unified java namespace (unless you want jpp
packagers to lynch you;) but a classpathx namespace (for classpathx
reimplementations), a jakarta namespace, an eclipse namespace, and lots
of packages released by independant projects with no strong ties to a
big org that will probably constitute the bulk of the FOSS java
"platform" for a long time.

Unless of course someone steps ups to organise this mess and have
everyone follow some common rules. But remember the small projects chose
not to work through Sun or Jakarta/Classpath/Eclipse... so chances are
their authors are pretty independent folks.

IMHO the only entity that could do it now is Sun if it spun out Java
stewardship in a FOSS-friendly foundation but do not count on it. In the
meanwhile it'd be misleading to present Java as a perl or python-like
community when it's not. There is less communication between some of the
projects we package than say between your average Gnome and KDE
developer (which means it's not always inexistant, just uncommon).
People share Sun's langage and apis but not much anything else. Forking
is nascent because you don't have the exchanges necessary to make sure
original versions play well with everything (and people are used to get
buggy stuff from Sun it's no use to complain about - better to patch it
locally and forget about it).

On the other hand the coming of age of gcj/classpath/jakarta is very
interesting. It could provide the heart of a vibrant FOSS community with
common values and policies. But the effects won't be seen for some time
- till then the center of gravity remains Sun. Its focus on controlling
the platform makes it a cold and sterile star.

Regards,

-- 
Nicolas Mailhot
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