Re: [Fwd: Re: [architecture] Re: JPackages and ObjectWeb]

[David Walluck <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Eric Bruneton wrote:

> Fractal depends on the latest CVS version of Jonathan (3.0a10).


Keep in mind that the following comments or `criticisms' (marked with a 
`*') are not meant to be rude. Virtually *every* Java project suffers 
from these same symptoms I'm about to mention, and the JPackage Project 
exists as a volunteer effort only to help these issues go away.

When building fractal 2.0, which is the version I found on the website, 
it uses an older version of jonathan which has API compatibilities with 
3.0a10. Using the 'cvs log' function, I tracked the version needed down 
to 3.0a7 or before.

* One of the problems the JPackage Project tries to address is this.

Also, the latest version in CVS is version of jonathan 3.1, not 3.0a10. 
But 3.0a10 seems to be the last release posted on the website.

* This is yet another thing that causes problems. How is anyone ever to 
know what the latest version even is? Things like this may lead to 
fragmentation of projects which depend on jonathan. For example, jonas 
uses 3.1. This is a good idea to use the latest available release. The 
problem is, what happens when 3.1 is incompatible with 3.0a10? We in 
JPackage would have to patch every project, or as a last resort include 
both versions.

> Anyway, I've copied the subset of Jonathan required by Fractal in the 
>  

* For JPackage purposes, this isn't a good idea at all. We want to use 
the official latest version of jonathan. Our policy dictates that we 
must remove any internal sources like these and instead use the official 
external jar.

One big goal here is that *all* objectweb projects, whenever possible, 
will share the latest and greatest jars between them. For example, this 
means that any project which needs jonathan would use the same jonathan 
jar. Especially sicne these are all objectweb components, it makes sense 
that they should share the same code. But note by `share' I do not mean 
each project copies some arbitrary source files from the projects they 
need, but that they try to stay up to date with respect to the versions, 
and if not, at least document the exact versions they are using, in case 
anyone (like us) wants to ever rebuild it sometime in the future.

> Fractal repository. I've also refactored the Fractal CVS in several 
> modules. The available modules are:
>
>  

Modularity is always good. We tend not to ship our own packages with 
say, the seven or so listed, but I could do this if you prefer that each 
module get its own package. Generally, we make a directory and put each 
jar into there. So anyone who installs the fractal RPM would get all 
seven jars. Javadocs and examples are packages separately, however. 
Anyway, whichever way you prefer is fine.

A couple questions about julia.

1. Is it a separate project or is the only place to find it in fractal? 
I mean, is julia a part of fractal or it's own package?

2. I didn't realize julia needed cldc. Yet, somehow I was able to build 
it. I'll have to look at this.

Anyway, the dependencies you listed for each jar is a great help to me. 
It will translate directly to the rpm spec file that I am creating. Thanks.


* One last thing, is that *all* objectweb projects seem to not honor the 
CLASSPATH in build.xml. This means we must go into `externals' or `lib' 
or whatever directory you use, and change the jars. Using the CLASSPATH 
would be much preferred.

--
Sincerely,

David Walluck
<david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature