Re: [Kissme-general] Re: Proposal for changes to Classpath's JNI libraries

[Etienne M. Gagnon]

Stephen Crawley wrote:
> How would you feel about incorporating Kissme's Orthogonal Persistence
> support into the SableVM?

As long as this code is enclosed within #ifdef's, so that support for it can be 
enabled or disabled at compile time, it would be OK with me. Note: Nothing 
prevents you to *also* make the support conditional on a runtime command-line 
option *when* it is enabled at compile time.

Of course, if most of this stuff can live in separate source files, with minimal 
(conditional #ifdef) hooks within the core VM code, it is all the better. ;-)

Note: I assume that I will not have to personally maintain the Orthogonal 
Persistence specific code, of course. [If the compile-time support can be 
disabled, then I can ignore any pending Orthogonal Persistence bug, for doing 
normal SableVM releases].  I can help with planning how to keep the Orthogonal 
Persistence code as separate as possible from the core source code, of course.

For your information: The goal of SableVM *is* specifically to provide a robust 
platform for doing research (which includes doing things like adding Orthogonal 
Persistence).

The current development site is hosted on SourceForge.  (I might eventually 
migrate the shared development to a UQAM based server, with similar ssh/cvs 
access.  So, this shouldn't pose a problem.)

I can give developer access to the SableVM project, as long as the "clean-room" 
status of all contributors is maintained, and as long as:

1- All SableVM code is LGPLed. [Copyright assignment NOT required].

2- All *standard* native/class library modifications are (eventually) 
incorporated to Classpath [so this means *mandatory* copyright assignment 
agreement with the FSF for such contributions (I have personally done so)].

3- Other [not core VM / not Classpath related] (a) native library code (C code, 
not in the VM) and (b) class library code (Java source), is under either LGPL, 
or under Classpath license [GPL+Classpath exception].

The motivation for this license policy is:

1- Not to fork from the Classpath base code. [The FSF requires copyright 
assignment for incorporating code into the official Classpath CVS].

2- Not force GNU GPL compatibility on all *applications* running on the VM. 
This happens when a VM is GPLed and linked with Classpath (invalidating the GPL 
exception), which in turn is linked with the user application.  [So, 
technically, one infriges on the copyright of Classpath and Kissme, when running 
such applications as "javac" on Kissme; at least, this is what Richard Stallman 
thinks (see Classpath ml archive for discussions on license questions)].

Have fun!

Etienne

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