Re: GCJ adoption and improving our "PR"

[Dalibor Topic <robilad at kaffe dot org>]

Hi Bryce,

Bryce McKinlay wrote:

> GCJ has unique benefits that should be emphasised - like:

Right on spot.

> - It allows you to write applications in Java that behave, look, and 
> feel just like any other "native" application.

Moreover, it *installs* just like any other application on your user's 
syetem. No need for asking the obvious  questions: 'where is your Java', 
'what Java version do you have', 'let me download this handy 70 megabyte 
hairball for you first', 'oh, looks like you've got your Java from Sun, 
but it has a bug that crashes our app, so let me fetch you IBMs and make 
it the default on your system', 'whaddaya mean uninstall?', 'how would 
you like to have your CLASSPATH set today', and similar java nightmares.

> And then there is the "public relations" issue. From my perspective 
> there is definitely far more going on in the GCJ/Classpath world today 
> than there was, say, 2 - 3 years ago. Adoption and development work has 
> undoubtably accelerated. GCJ developers and users know this, I think, 
> but apparently there is a perception in the wider community that things 
> are somewhat stagnant. Our website doesn't help this perception: updates 
> are infrequent and the content is somewhat out of date.

http://classpath.wildebeest.org/planet/

But seriously, if someone who doesn't feel like hacking C or Java code 
or writing mauve tests would be so kind to start summarizing what's 
happening on gcj, and GNU Classpath mailing lists in a format similar to 
kernel traffic, debian weekly news, or LWN, I think you'd have a very 
good chance of reaching out to people who don't want to browse 
gcc.gnu.org for their daily news feed. :)

Jim Pick was doing something like that for Kaffe as Kaffe Weekly News 
[1], but I think something like that in the context of the whole free 
java runtime spectrum (from AegisVM to Wonka) would fill quite a few 
pages of interesting reading once a week.

cheers,
dalibor topic

[1] http://www.kaffe.org/weeklynews/2002/2.html and then it froze 
because of lack of time :(