Re: On the use of pre-compiled classes in packages
On Monday 6 December 1999, at 10 h 49, the keyboard of Stefan Gybas
<stefan@gybas.com> wrote:
> I think it is Java-specific as JAR files are architecture independent (unlike
> ..o and .a files).
It changes nothing to the issues of freedom vs. non-freedom.
> 1. building the package is a lot faster (javac is very slow,
jikes is ten times faster.
> 2. recompiling might introduce bugs which are not present in the upstream
> release.
You very clearly explained why it is necessary to recompile... Otherwise, it
means the availability of the source code is meaningless, if you cannot even
recompile it.
> > free software means the ability to recompile yourself on a Debian box
> > (even if you finally choose to use the jar from the upstream author).
>
> So you don't mind using the upstream JAR if recompiling is possible?
*I* would not mind (I'm a pragmatic), providing the *detailed* (i.e. Makefile) instructions for recompiling are in the Debian package (one of the packages which started the thread seems genuinely incompilable on Debian).
May be the rest of the Debian Project will disagree. Accepting in "main" something we cannot recompile seem a gross violation of the DFSG. rms would love that :-)
Anyway, if someone tries to put in "main" a package which is not compilable from the source of the package, I would certainly raise the issue on debian-project.
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