Ahead of time compiler solutions

[shudo@computer.org]

Hi,

Tom Tromey wrote:

> Philippe> and in addition, several other issues make GCJ as a whole
> Philippe> unsuitable for my purposes. It comes down to requiring
> Philippe> certification.
>
> The fact is, we'll probably never get certification.  Despite
> occasional press releases to the contrary, Sun keeps a tight grip on
> the JCK.

I agree that it's the most likely case for us never to get certification.
But I have not abandoned my hope.
If you have, would you give us a clue indicating that
Sun will keep grasping the JCK?


I could have a chance to have a talk with Rob Gingell, the chair of
the JCP program, this September.  As you know, the JCP loosened their
control on implementation of specifications produced along JCP
processes in response to the Apache's demands early in this year.
But, the Java Language Specification (JLS) and the JVM specification
are not on the JCP processes.  Unfortunately, the changes of the JCP
do not affect the JLS and the JVM spec.  The JCK which may be the TCK
for those specifications is still accessible to licensees of Java even
though other TCKs are possible to be publicly available.  I confirmed
these facts by asking Rob and he admitted them.

Then, I tell him that comprehensive test suite is essentially
important for quality of Java processing systems. In fact, the JCK
(J2SE TCK?) is the only test suite which can ensure that Java systems
have achieved producttion quality.  We, developers of Java systems
including JVM, JIT, Java compilers and so on, hope to access the JCK
eagerly.

He answered that it is not difficult to loosen the conditions of the
JCK and he has not just tried yet.  I was pleased but we have not been
able to see any change on the JCK so far.


I have also applied to the following program to obtain the access to
the JCK this August:

  http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2002-08/sunflash.20020813.3.html
  SUN ESTABLISHES SCHOLARSHIP FUND FOR JAVA TECHNOLOGY COMPATIBILITY TESTING

I could not have any reply so far.
I also asked Rob about this application and he said approval processes
of that program are held once a month and my application might has not
yet examined.  But, so far, I have not received any response.  As I
thought, the JCK may be out of scope of the above scholarship program.


  Kazuyuki Shudo	shudo@computer.org	http://www.shudo.net/