[kaffe] Re: Is BufferedImage supported in Kaffe?

[Dalibor Topic]

Hi Jacob,

--- Jacob Wang <jacobkaffe at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi, Thanks a lot, Torsten and Dalibor,
> 
> > I mailed with dalibor and classpath about it, (this
> > behavior is quite 
> > senseless), but so they do pass simple compatibility
> > tests with SUNs JDK.
> The simple compatibility tests your mentioned don't
> include anything on BufferedImage, right? 

The simple compatibility tests are done with japitools and check for API
compliance (i.e. if kaffe or classpath have the same programming interface like
sun's JDK, not  that the implementations behave the same way. That's what mauve
is for , and there are no AWT tests in mauve AFAIK. But they would surely
welcome someone contributing AWT tests ...). See
http://rainbow.netreach.net/~sballard/japi/ for more information.
> 
> Also, I'm wondering if Classpath supports
> BufferedImage so far?

Well, it does, but there is no implementation of the functionality you are
interested in. I'm sure they would welcome a contribution. ;)

> And yet another question, is it doable if I use JDK
> implementation for java.awt.image package and kaffe
> implementation for other awt packages to support
> BufferedImage? Will there be any technical (will JDK
> java.awt.image package be compatible with kaffe
> awt?)or legal (copyright) issues?

Technical: depends on how Sun implemented the class. Since kaffe and classpath
are clean room efforts, there is no way I'm going to look at Sun's code to
figure it out ;) And you shouldn't either, if you want to contribute to free
software java implementations. You could try removing kaffe's java.awt.image
and using the one from Sun's JDK, and if you are lucky, it might work.

Legal: Sun's source code license in not GPL-compatible, so you can't distribute
their code alongside with kaffe. See http://www.jini.org/process/lic_faq.html
question 9.

In short: if you want a good, free software, no-legal-hassle BufferedImage
implementation, please work with the Classpath & gcj developers, and the
projects I mentioned in the previous post on creating one. AFAIK, gcj is the
original source of the BufferedImage implementation.

cheers,
dalibor topic

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