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Re: jdk1.2



Hi,

On Tue, Aug 10, 1999 at 05:12:25PM -0400, Gene McCulley wrote:
> 
> I was wondering about whether there were plans to package jdk1.2.  I
> thought I would search the mailing list archives before I asked and I
> found this in a mail about release critical bugs:
> 
> >> Package: jdk1.1 (non-free).
> >> Maintainer: Stephen Zander <gibreel@debian.org>
> >> [REMOVE] This package must be removed if its license is not fixed.
> >>   37599 jdk1.1: no permission to distribute
> >Did anybody contact Sun? I would really miss the jdk. Anyway, what happened to
> >the jdk1.2 alias jdk2?
> 
> This is scary.  Is there really a problem with having the jdk package?

Yes, the JDK License is scary. Especially the License that comes with JDK 1.2.
Clause 2 of that license says:

> Software is confidential and copyrighted. Title to Software and all
> associated intellectual property rights is retained by Sun and/or its
> licensors.  Except as specifically authorized in any Supplemental License
> Terms, you may not make copies of Software, other than a single copy of
> Software for archival purposes.

That means that unless Debian, its mirrors and other people distributing
Debian (non-free) CDs get an exception it cannot be distributed via the ftp
archive or on CD.

Also note that you probably don't want to use JDK 1.2 if you are working on
any of the free Java implementations. Clause 1 of the Supplemental License
Terms says:

> [You] may not create, or authorize your licensees to create
> additional classes, interfaces, or subpackages that are contained in
> the "java" or "sun" packages or similar as specified by Sun in any
> class file naming convention;

Which seems to prevent us from making our own implementation of the
standard java classes using the JDK. (Wouldn't you love to make a
java.util.bzip2.Bzip2InputStream? You can't with the jdk.)

Please help one of the Free Java implementations if you want to use Java
in Debian. There are a lot of projects that you can choose from:

classpath: <http://www.classpath.org>
kaffe: <http://www.kaffe.org>
Japhar: <http://www.japhar.org>
gcj and libgcj: <http://sourceware.cygnus.com/java/>
jikes: <http://www.research.ibm.com/jikes/>
(The new license seems to be finally really free)
kopi: <http://www.dms.at/kjc/>

Cheers,

Mark

P.S. There is a nice little utility that should be included in Debian.
It is called fastjar and it is a complete replacement for the jar utility
written in C under the GPL <http://www.engr.orst.edu/~burnsbr/fastjar/>.
(It saved me a lot of time since it is really fast!)
P.P.S. I am still looking for a free javadoc implementation. Has anybody found
such a program?


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