Why MS-extensions?

[Maksim Lin]

Godmar Back wrote:
> 
>  Tim and his company support the MS-extensions in their custom edition.
> While Tim can speak best for his company, let me point out two things:
> 
> + before we add those extensions (from what I can tell, we're talking about
>   a microsoft directory in libraries/javalib and a few .c files that go
>   in a shared library -- no changes or restrictions in the VM or the rest of
>   the libraries), I'd rather see Tim add the new code generator or
>   support for gcj.  There are indeed more pressing issues than adding support
>   for Microsoft Java.

Plus I guess I should add that I respect the ethic of "he who writes the
code gets to decide what gets written" so I have no problems with these
extensions being added, I was just surprised given previous objections
to including non-standard stuff in kaffe.

> + Secondly, just what makes Microsoft Java better or worse than Sun Java?
>   For us, that is, for the open source kaffe, the deciding factor as to
>   whether to add or not add a given feature or API, should not be which
>   company developed it, but whether there's people who really need and/or
>   use it.  Plus, what its technical merits are.
>   Do people use Microsoft Java a lot?  I don't know.  But if they
>   did, it would be nice to support it in Kaffe.  Should Tim decide to offer
>   the code for the public edition at some point, we can discuss the
>   question of whether it's worth adding or not.  Then, people who want it
>   can speak up and if nobody wants it, there's no reason to add it.

I have to admit that I have been guilty of falling into the
everything-MS=bad trap.  Since I admit to not knowing very much at all
about the MS-java extensions, perhaps someone could entlighten me on
what exactly they are & do - I haven't given them much thought until
now, but since there will be an o-s JVM supporting them I guess I should
be open-minded engough to actually learn what they are.
 
>   Finally, may I remind people that there's currently no running version
>   of Kaffe for Windows (minus maybe a non-windowing version that runs
>   under Cygwin), so this discussion---like so many discussions on news outlets
>   such as slashdot---is a bit premature and pointless anyway.
> 
>         - Godmar

Agreed but as I said above people, are free to work on what they want
to/need to have.  Personally I've been trying to get the gtk AWT stuff
going because thats something I want for my own projects, I bet it's not
a priority for other people, so I'm NOT complaining about Tim (or anyone
else) working on the MS-extensions rather then something else.  

And yes most of these discussions are pointless, but at least on this
list the noise is pretty low and some decent discussion takes place.

Maksim.
-- 
Remember Darwin; building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter
mice.