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

[Alex Nicolaou]

Godmar Back wrote:
> 
> >
> > The (admittedly unlikely) scenario is not the only one that
> > distinguishes Classpath from Kaffe's Libs. Just as Transvirtual wishes
> > to stop use of the Kaffe VM code in competing proprietary commercial
> > VMs, the GPL on the Kaffe libs mean that the Kaffe lib can't be used as
> > part of a competing proprietary runtime. So by the same logic that you
> > conclude that Japhar and Kaffe server a different need, you must also
> > conclude that Classpath and Kaffe's libs serve a different need, since
> > Classpath can be used in a commercial Java runtime.
> >
> 
> Okay, I think I see what you're getting at.
> Let's follow that discussion for a while because the only thing that
> excites nerds more than Microsoft bashing is discussions about the
> licensing issues.
> 
> Say you wrote your own java.beans, but you would want to use Kaffe's
> java.io/java.lang.  Or you wrote your own java.beans, but you would want
> to use classpath's java.io+lang.
> 
> So you have two combos:
> 
> a) your java.beans/kaffe's java.io+lang
> b) your java.beans/classpath's java.io+lang.
> 
> What you're saying is that you could keep your java.beans proprietary
> in scenario b), but not in a)?

Yes, although in the example you give we're back to fuzzy definitions -
am I aggregating my "java.beans" library with the other class libraries
or are they "contained" in each other? So perhaps in this example it's
clean and could be proprietary in both cases.

But, let's say I'm writing my own VM. Now, I need an implementation of
java.* for my VM, and perhaps I don't want to write one. My choices are:

a) take Kaffe's, modify to suit my VM,
b) take Classpath, modify to suit my VM,
c) license from some other source.

In (a) I would think that my VM had better be GPL; it clearly (to my
mind) "contains" the Kaffe libraries. 

In (b), no worries. I ship what I like, when I like, with the license I
like. The only catch is that mods to the Classpath libs will probably
need to be LGPL; most likely not a problem.

alex

P.S. I may have muddied the waters by introducing the word "Runtime",
which to my mind includes the VM, garbage collector, thread package, and
standard java class libraries. I've avoided it this time.