GNU Classpath 0.12, ..., 1.0

[Mark Wielaard]

Hi all,

I wanted to do a new release last weekend. But that weekend there was a
lot of new code merged from libgcj, build fixes, new bean code, image
code, classloader updates, file name normalization updates, new X.509
certificate (path checking) code and signed jar entries support...
That should teach me not to be clear on when the new release will be.
But thanks a lot for all the hard work
As always the amount of work done in just 2 months is amazing.

We do now have a few small regressions however. There is something wrong
with zip/jar archives on the classpath (this might or might not be a GNU
Classpath issue, we changed the VM interface subtly so maybe it is a
runtime issue). Opening a JarFile with 'verify' set to false  breaks
(and is not thread-safe) [I have a fix for that].
RepaintManager.paintDirtyRegions() seems broken [saw a fix for that in
libgcj gui branch]. And at least with jamvm Eclipse 3 starts up, but
crashes immediately after that [it did work correctly 2 weeks ago].

I want to try to make the 0.12 release with all the great new stuff on
Friday (Nov 12). But then we need to focus on fixing the regressions. If
you have larger updates, please discuss on the mailinglist (or
irc.gnu.org #classpath) first before committing.

The (ambitious) goal is still to have a 1.0 release before (or around)
Fosdem (Brussels, 26/27 February 2005). For this we will have to make
choices what we actually feel can be stable, clean and well documented
enough to support as 1.0 stable release that other free software hackers
can use to build new software around, and that supports existing free
software programs that we think are important to support with a 1.0
release.

To focus more on working towards a 1.0 I want to start to make monthly
releases. 0.13 start of December, 0.14 start of January and 0.15 start
of February. The 0.13 release will be the cut-off date for new
packages/classes (we will finally include GNU JAXP by then), 0.14 is
when we will select which packages are 1.0 material and which are either
dropped or moved into beta status (shipped with 1.0, but not
supported/finalized) and 0.15 will be the release-candidate-1 which
should be just perfect.

Also the FSF wants to have your feedback on the current license
(exception) statement we are using. For the 1.0 release we would like to
make sure there is no confusion about the terms. And it seems that there
still is some around the "independent module" term introduced in the
last clarification. If you feel that the current text is not clear
enough you are invited to comment on the wiki that the FSF has setup:
http://wiki.novalis.org/moin.cgi/FrontPage

Hope you like the plan. And if not, please just reply to this email with
a counter proposal that will get us a solid 1.0 release.

Cheers,

Mark

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