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IBM Collaborating With Open Source Java Project

Posted by Zonk on from the big-corp-and-little-guy-working-together dept.

lord_rob the only on writes "According to news.com, IBM has begun participating in the open-source Java project Harmony and intends to contribute code to the initiative, according to a Big Blue executive. At this point, IBM's participation is limited to thoughts on design, but the company has plans to contribute code to the project in the future." From the article: "We really like to see the community get started, and they're still working out the rough edges of what they want to deliver. And we didn't want to disrupt that,"

6 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Eclipse? by VolciMaster · · Score: 3, Informative

    This should line up with their efforts with Eclipse, too. I might get into a little Java programming if the environment were open-source.

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    antipaucity
    1. Re:Eclipse? by LDoggg_ · · Score: 4, Informative

      Eclipse is indeed open source.
      In fact, fedora core 4 comes with a natively compiled version of eclipse and a 100% open source jvm implementation.
      Still needs quite a bit of work, but has definetly come a long way

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      "If they have both, tell them we use Linux. And if they have that, tell them the computers are down." -Dave Chapelle
  2. Swing? by ravenspear · · Score: 4, Informative

    GCJ still only provides limited support for Swing. I don't think it can be said that it has "come of age" until that support is there in a form that at least remotely resembles javac.

  3. Re:Talk about fragmenting the standard... by luiss · · Score: 5, Informative

    This project is implementing a Java Virtual Machine. How in the world does this fragment the Java Language any more than let's say Apple or IBM's many JVM implementations?

    Now, if Harmony intends to "extend" the Java Language by lets say, adding new keywords, just as Microsoft did with J++ at one point, then you can start worrying about Java Language fragmentation (in which case Sun would not allow Harmony to call itself a Java(TM) Virtual Machine).

  4. Re:IBM could create Harmony overnight by psykocrime · · Score: 4, Informative

    IBM already has a complete JDK which actually used to be much better than Sun's in terms of efficiency etc. (not sure how it compares right now). They could just release the whole thing as F/OSS under the new JCP rules, and create Harmony overnight. Why have they not done this yet?

    Because IBM's JDK wasn't written from scratch. It's based, to some degree, on Sun's code. I don't know how much Sun code is in IBM's JDK, or the exact details of the license between Sun and IBM, but I know IBM's JDK is subject to Sun licensing.

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  5. Re:IBM could create Harmony overnight by Dan+Berlin · · Score: 3, Informative

    This isn't true anymore. The old JVM was based on sun's code. The new one is completely cleanroom.