Re: Contributions of work on Jikes RVM with GNU Classpath

[Brian Jones]

Mark Wielaard <address@hidden> writes:

> >  We would be happy to contribute our changes in any manner people at
> > GNU Classpath find convenient.  We can send you diffs in any format or
> > simply a tarball of the GNU Classpath tree we have here.  Please let
> > me know what you would find most useful.
> 
> It is probably a good idea to make a new release of GNU Classpath first
> (say in the next two weeks). So that we have a clear point from which to
> start merging in the changes. The last GNU Classpath release was a
> couple of months ago and a lot of changes have been made. I will propose
> a release schedule on the GNU Classpath list later today since I wanted
> to have a new release anyway soon. But it depends a bit on the number of
> changes that you have, if there are not that many then maybe waiting a
> little longer with a new release might be a better option.

I would prefer to integrate the changes from a recent CVS diff to add
this functionality in before the next release.  The changes in the VM
layer should be integrated as quickly as possible.  I am also much
happier about big diffs when there are Mauve tests to prove them out,
but this is more of a strong suggestion than a requirement.  I think
it works out best to make the diffs small, by package for example, and
include appropriate ChangeLog entries.

It's much easier to see that a two-line change makes sense than to
review a massive diff for example.

> The best way to do the actual merge/patches is by trying to identify
> independent changes and post them on the classpath mailinglist so people
> can discuss them. Just sending a big tarball or one gaint patch/diff
> makes it hard to analyse what changed and for what reason. If you send
> patches to the mailinglist please try to create diffs against the
> current CVS tree and use unidiffs (cvs diff -u). If splitting up the
> changes is not possible you can always make a unidiff of the changes and
> add it to the Patch Manager http://savannah.gnu.org/patch/?group_id=85
> but then it might take a (long) while before the patches will actually
> be merged.

I prefer diffs/patches always make it into the patch manager just so
they don't get lost.  If the big diff is split up then people can take
ownership of integrating each as needed.  Copying the mailing list is
okay too... I think we have a 300K mail size limit though thus smaller
is always better.

> Brian Jones can also give one of you CVS write access to the GNU
> Classpath tree if you want.

There are some legalities involved I don't understand yet.  I would
like to do this, but I don't know that I can or that IBM desires it.

> >  Thanks to John Leuner for getting the whole Jikes RVM on GNU
> > Classpath work started and doing the initial port.
> 
> Yes. Thanks a lot John!

Thanks John and JRVM team!
-- 
Brian Jones <address@hidden>
http://www.haphazard.org/~cbj/