Object* classes

[Per Bothner]

> Note that there's a complete (GPL'ed) working (including inter-operating
> with the JDK) implementation of serialisation in Kaffe, which you could
> take code or simply algorithms from. 

We cannot take code from Kaffe, because of the license.  Our
customers need to be able to use libgcj in embedded systems, which
the LGPL would preclude.  Yes, libgcj is also LGPL, but Cygnus owns
it, so we can put a different license on our commercial product.
The situation is slightly confusing, and not my preference,
but Cygnus has put a lot of money into Gcj, and management is
rightly concerned that we not get ripped off.  Nothing is cast
in stone, but we think the current situation is workable for now.

However, it is possible for original author of original Kaffe code
to *also* donate the same code to libgcj.  This may happen with
the Object serialization code from Classpath.

I hope the various free Java class library projects can
co-operate, but it may take some time.  Co-operation does
not need to be all-or-nothing - we might all use a common
free implementation of Swing (say), while still using
separate versions of java.lang (say).

	--Per Bothner
Cygnus Solutions     bothner@cygnus.com     http://www.cygnus.com/~bothner