Re: GSoC 08 Ideas for GNU Classpath

[Andrew John Hughes]

On 12/03/2008, James Youngman <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 11:55 PM, Andrew John Hughes
>
> <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> >  Thanks James. Below is an updated version with a new idea and corrected 
> > links.
>
>
> Applied.    Note: you should copy the list, not send things directly
>  to me, since I might not always be available.     Also, of course
>  other people might have comments, too.
>
>
>  James.
>

Sorry, I didn't realise I hadn't added in the list.  Below is a
further update...

<h4><a id="classpath" href="/software/classpath/">Classpath</a></h4>

<p>GNU Classpath is a GNU project to create a Free clean room
implementation of the core class libraries for use with virtual
machines and compilers for the java programming language.  In addition
to the ideas presented here, you may also find some more on
<a href="http://developer.classpath.org/mediation/GoogleSoC2008";>this
wiki page</a>.
</p>


<ul>

  <li><strong>Support the <a
  href="http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/jdk/api/attach/spec/index.html";>Java
  Attach API</a></strong>

  <p>This is needed to run JConsole locally (which would be the end goal of
  this project). Having it as part of our VM interface has general
  usefulness as VMs will need this for OpenJDK too.</p>

  <ul>
    <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=34583";>PR
classpath/34583</a></li>
  </ul>

  </li>

  <li><strong><a
href="http://icedtea.classpath.org/wiki/BrandWeg";>BrandWeg</a></strong>

  <p>BrandWeg is our attempt to integrate parts of OpenJDK into Classpath
  to provide some of the missing functionality to VMs using the
  Classpath interface. This is actually capable of spawning a number of
  sub-projects depending on student interest:</p>
  <ul>
    <li>Using OpenJDK's java.util.Scanner</li>
    <li>Using OpenJDK's Swing HTML implementation</li>

    <li>Using OpenJDK's native ZIP implementation</li>

    <li>Using JAXWS from OpenJDK</li>
  </ul>
  </li>

  <li><strong>Support <a href="http://jboss.org";>JBoss</a></strong>
  <p>JBoss should run well on GNU Classpath.  There are a number of open
  bugs for this:</p>

  <ul>

    <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=27710"/>PR
classpath/27710</a></li>
    <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=28552"/>PR
classpath/28552</a></li>
    <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=35479"/>PR
classpath/35479</a></li>
  </ul>
  </li>

  <li><strong>Support <a href="http://tomcat.apache.org";>TomCat</a></strong>
  <p>Likewise, TomCat should run.</p>

  <ul>
    <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=35482"/>PR
classpath/35482</a></li>
    <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=35487"/>PR
classpath/35487</a></li>
  </ul>

  </li>

  <li><strong>Support <a
href="http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/batik";>Batik</a></strong>
  <p>See <a 
href="http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/xmlgraphics-batik-dev/200803.mbox/address@hidden"/>

  Classpath should be able to run Batik.</p>
  </li>

  <li><strong><a href="http://library.gnome.org/devel/glib";>Glib</a>
as the native layer</strong>
  <p>We could simplify the portability glue code by using glib underneath.
  We're using glib implicitly in the GTK peers already, and it would let
  us delegate the responsibility for portability wrappers out of
  classpath, while at the same time making the native code work
  transparently on win32.</p>
  </li>

  <li><strong>Rewrite <a
href="http://trolltech.com/products/qt";>Qt</a> peers using <a
href="http://trolltech.com/products/qt/jambi";>Jambi</a></strong>

  <p>Our Qt peers are rotting away, and that means it's time for someone to
  come in and rewrite them. Qt Jambi are the official bindings for Qt
  for Java code, so it could be both fun and useful to rewrite our Qt
  based AWT peers in pure Java.</p>
  </li>

  <li><strong>Update GJDoc to support the 1.5 language constructs</strong>
<p>Within the GNU Classpath Free Java stack, there remains one
component that can not yet fully handle the 1.5 language constructs
such as generics, enumerations and annotations.  A development process
of approximately two years ensured that the main code base and VMs
supported these extensions, but our documentation generator has so far
simply being patched so that it can at least generate documentation
for the current codebase.  The <a
href="http://fuseyism.com/classpath/doc/";>documentation for our latest
release</a> illustrates some of the problems, notably in classes like
java.lang.Enum.  GJDoc really needs a new parser to handle the 1.5
constructs and then appropriate adaptation to render them correctly in
the HTML doclet.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=33956";>PR
classpath/33956</a></li>

</ul></li>
<li><strong>Add file output support for the sound API</strong>
<p><a href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007";>Last year's Google Summer
of Code</a> saw a successful proposal to add support for reading and
playing sound files using a GStreamer implementation of javax.sound.
Support for writing sound files is still missing however.</p></li>
  <li><strong>Implement java.util.Scanner</strong>
  <p>A skeleton implementation is available from Tom Tromey.  This has
been a long-suffering hole in GNU Classpath.</p></li>

</ul>
-- 
Andrew :-)

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