[Kaffe] can the classpath project be used with Kaffe.

[Tim Wilkinson]

We've been round and round this one so many times ...

We use the GPL because we believe in free software - we don't believe in
writing software for other people to put in commerical products without making
that software free too - and that includes Transvirtual (we don't use any
public code in the custom version unless we get explit permission, and then
we've happy to pay for it too).

Nor do we ask authors to give up their copyright on their code - it they want
to sell their work under an alternate license that find by us.  We do ask
people to declare their "cleanliness" however.

The trouble with shifting Kaffe to the Classpath libraries would be that,
appart from throwing away all the good code people have written and are
writing, you'd loose Transvirtual's ability to contribute to the project.  We
work on our libraries for our customers and release that code under the GPL as
well - we can't work on classpath libraries because we can't use that code in
our products.

It'd make me sad if that happen.

Tim

> On Feb  9, 1999, Moses DeJong <dejong at cs.umn.edu> wrote:
>
> > I was just reading up on the classpath project and it seem that they
> > are using the LGPL while Kaffe uses the GPL. Does this mean that classpath
> > code can not be used in the Kaffe project?
>
> Nope, LGPL is compatible with GPL.
>
> >  I am not advocating that Kaffe's java libs be replaced, I am just
> >  saying that it would be nice to be able to compare implementations
> >  of the java.* classes in classpath and Kaffe.
>
> Certainly.  I, for one, would find it great.  There are certain parts
> of Classpath that are much more mature than Kaffe's.  Furthermore, I
> understand that Transvirtual cannot use code people contribute to the
> GPLed Kaffe in the custom edition (except code from people that have
> signed papers giving them explicit permission to do so), therefore
> adopting Classpath for the GPLed edition of Kaffe would be a step
> forward in terms of JDK-compatibility, because the Free Software
> community wouldn't be duplicating efforts.
>
> But then, Tim and Peter might not like that move.  I'd appreciate to
> have input from them about this idea.
>
> --
> Alexandre Oliva  http://www.dcc.unicamp.br/~oliva  aoliva@{acm.org}
> oliva@{dcc.unicamp.br,gnu.org,egcs.cygnus.com,samba.org}
> Universidade Estadual de Campinas, SP, Brasil



--
  Tim Wilkinson                         Tel:     +1 510 704 1660
  Transvirtual Technologies, Inc.,      Fax:     +1 510 704 1893
  Berkeley, CA, USA.                    Email:   tim at transvirtual.com