Where do I begin?

[Rob Mayoff]

I don't think looking at Sun's code disqualifies you from working on
other JVM's.  Not only does it not say that, or have any kind of
non-compete clause, but the license says you may use the source for
research and education.  Me just dumb programmer, but it seems like
looking at their source to understand how the VM's supposed to work so
you can work on another VM would fall under "research".

The Kaffe policy may preclude looking at the Sun source, but that policy not
necessarily mandated by the Sun license.

| > Is anything I add to Kaffe tainted if I look at Sun's source?
| 
| Utterly :-(
| 
| I think looking at Sun's source pretty much disqualifies you from
| working on any other Java VM. (Though I just reviewed their
| non-commercial licence and it didn't actually say that.) It certainly
| disqualifies you from working on Kaffe, since the intent was to make
| this a "clean room" implementation.