Re: Re (3): testing before a release

[Etienne M. Gagnon]

address@hidden wrote:

> Is a JVM _using_ the library? ...


This is a difficult question to answer.  I know that SableVM uses the Java 
libraries to do some of its core processing (class initialization, etc).  These 
classes are written by myself, but they do "link" with java.lang.Object.  Now, 
if an application links with AWT, which links with java.lang.Object => 
java.lang.Object has to be GPLed => my class initialization code has to be GPLed 
=> my VM has to be GPLed.  You see... :-(

JNI is also a difficult issue.  If I take some GPL VM on the web, add a JNI 
interface to it (assuming it doesn't yet have it), can I now link it with 
non-GPL JNI libraries?  If yes, I see a nice opportunity to abuse GPL programs 
out there...

> A problem arises, if the JVM itself uses functionalities from the classes,
> and the Java Libraries can be tempting, as they are designed to include the
> JVM and have lots of other functionalities too, that are available once the
> JVM is bootstrapped. This is probably where the clause would match.


Yep.

Etienne


--
Etienne M. Gagnon                    http://www.info.uqam.ca/~egagnon/
SableVM:                                       http://www.sablevm.org/
SableCC:                                       http://www.sablecc.org/