[kaffe] Proposal: Kaffe Multi-Media Project

Fri Apr 9 10:05:03 2004

Hi there,

  I get involved with KaffeVM in the beginning as sending some
Qt/Embedded AWT backend patches. Nowadays, KaffeVM is proven to 
run on several main-stream platform, even with related GUI support. 
In fact, KaffeVM is always the most portable JavaVM implmentation. 
However, KaffeVM lacks many features, which are improved over the 
interoperability from GNU Classpath and GCJ gains more and more as 
time goes, but KaffeVM is still weak in apect of multimedia.

  So that, I plan to raise an on-going project named Kaffe Multi-Media
(KMM). Since we have many successful stories, such as JSDL [1] and jGL 
[2], I would like to introduce KaffeVM as the core component of 
multimedia platform extending the power of Java. convergence [3] 
developed a cool MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) running Java applets, 
whose runtime engine is based on KaffeVM, and they provided some 
impressive screenshots [4]. With some reasons, convergence dropped out 
their DirectFB stuff on KaffeVM, and released their works as kawt [5]. 
This gives me a very clear and feasible hint to develop KMM platform 
based on the efforts of Kaffe.org.

  In the meanwhile, I am testing some open source projects focusing on 
pure-Java or semi-Java multimedia, and trying to get them working on
KaffeVM. The planning supported application list is as following:

- Base multimedia library: JSDL, GL4Java [6], xj3D [7], Jun [8]
- Media Player: jlGui [9], MPEG-1-Player [11], jOggPlayer [12]
- Media Browser: X-Smiles [13]
- J2ME/MIDP compatibility: ME4SE [14], MicroEmulator [15]
   ... etc.

  It's interesting and much fun for Kaffe Multi-Media Project showing
more and more exciting demo with KaffeVM. I'd like to invite all 
developers to join in.

cheers,
Jim Huang <jserv AT kaffe.org>

[1] http://www.kaffe.org/pipermail/kaffe/2004-March/045657.html
[2] http://www.kaffe.org/pipermail/kaffe/2004-March/045746.html
[3] http://www.convergence.de/ and its awesome toolkit, DirectFB:
    http://www.directfb.org/
[4] http://www.directfb.org/news/martin/screenshots.xml
[5] http://www.kaffe.org/pipermail/kaffe/2002-December/028462.html
[6] http://www.jausoft.com/gl4java.html
[7] http://www.hypermultimedia.com/Xj3D/getstart.htm
[8] http://www.sra.co.jp/people/nisinaka/Jun4Java/index_en.html
[9] http://www.javazoom.net/jlgui/jlgui.html
    I attempted to get it working, but I got some strange problems [10].
[10] http://www.kaffe.org/pipermail/kaffe/2004-April/045865.html
[11] http://rnvs.informatik.tu-chemnitz.de/~jan/MPEG/MPEG_Play.html
[12] http://joggplayer.webarts.bc.ca/
[13] http://www.xsmiles.org/
[14] http://www.kaffe.org/pipermail/kaffe/2004-March/045732.html
[15] http://www.kaffe.org/pipermail/kaffe/2004-April/045793.html