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Debian Java FAQ.
Chapter 3 - Status of Java in Debian's older releases (before Lenny)


3.1 Is the information in this chapter still up to date?

Probably not but it takes some time to re-check every entry. That is why we keep the information for a while.


3.2 Where is Debian Java going?

The first thing you should understand about the design strategy of Debian is that our goal is to produce a 100% Free Software platform. In that sense, some of the Java tools available are not available in the standard Debian distribution for licensing reasons, not for any technical motivation (see Questions on platforms and license concerns, Section 6.3).

That said, basically all of the technologies you might ask about can be or are available for Debian immediately. In order to usefully answer your questions, however, here you have a status from an Open Source availability perspective.

If you are really interested, read the following: http://lists.debian.org/debian-java/1999/debian-java-199912/msg00015.html and http://lists.debian.org/debian-java/1999/debian-java-199910/msg00017.html. This section is a summary of the information therein. (Note: this information might not be fully updated at this point in time, it was written around 1999)


3.3 Is there a Java1 compiler (.java to .class)?

Gcj can also compile .java to .class. CVS version currently does handle inner classes, as well as any other jdk 1.1 constructs, but might not be able to compile a complicated program like the XSL processor xt. It is written in C, so is reasonably fast. It generates reasonably good bytecode. And of course being able to use the same compiler for .java to .class and .java to native has its advantages.


3.4 Is there a Java1 JVM or JIT?

libgcj (the run-time library for gcj) now includes an interpreter and ClassLoader.


3.5 Is there a Java1 native compiler?

GCC, the Gnu Compiler Collection comes with GCJ, the Gnu Compiler for Java


3.6 Is there a Java Debugger (jdb equivalent)?

Gdb can debug native code produced by Gcj. Stuart Grossman (Cygnus) also wrote support for Gdb to debug other VMs using JVMDI. This has not been released, because the Gdb internals were changed at the same time, and no-one has had time to re-integrate the changes. We can probably get Cygnus to release the old code, if someone wants to look into getting this stuff working with the current Gdb internals. (A non-trivial job.)

See http://gcc.gnu.org/java/gdb.html on how to debug gcj-compiled Java programs.


3.6.1 What free edit-interactive/graphical debugging tools are available on Debian?

jde, ddd, eclipse, more?

One of the some nice features of jde are autoindention and syntax highlighting, but it also supports debugging and compilation.


3.7 Is there a Jar tool?

FastJar which is indeed very fast.


3.8 Is there a Javadoc tool?

doc++ can work with C++ and Java. Additionally, there are the gjdoc and gjdoc-native packages.


3.9 Does Debian do Enterprise Java Beans (EJB)?

There is activity in this area, the most noteworthy being the Open Source EJB implementation from Bull in France called Jonas. I have done some work with this system and it provides a good start towards a full EJB feature set. In particular, it provides a transaction monitor and a container based persistance implementation. I have used this system on Linux with free databases such as Postgresql. I have not been able to get the system fully operational on Kaffe. Additionally, the system depends on many Sun APIs which have not been cloned (JTA, JNDI, and EJB itself).


3.10 What is JAIN?

It seems to be a system for controlling large scale, integrated communications infrastructures and modeling events with such networks via the JavaBeans API. The scale of this effort seems very large and encompasses the work of many organizations. The work is very new and seems to tie into Sun's SCSL strategy, which leads us me to believe that there is not much in the way of Open Source options in this area. However, some protocols such as H.323 are genuinely open and are even cloned so it is possible that chunks of the JAIN system may exist in a scattered manner. We have no knowledge of a serious Free Software implementation of RTP or the H.323 infrastructures in Java.


3.11 What is Jini?

Jini presents an especially pronounced Free Software problem. Jini is only available as source from Sun and that source is only available under the SCSL. The SCSL is not compatible in any sense with either the legal mechanics or the political spirit of Free Software. The SCSL also makes cloning the API of an SCSL implementation illegal which precludes even a clean room replication of Jini. If you are interested in tuple space type implementations there are Open Source options.


3.12 Are there many changes in Sarge?

At this moment, there only seems to be dh_javadoc, which is a tool in the gjdoc package. However, people spoke about other tools on the debian-java mailing list in 2003.

The Etch release was the first one to provide Sun's JDK environment without the need to download it from third-party repositories (see Java 5 and 6, Section 6.3.1).


3.13 What can I expect in future releases?

Debian has a roadmap at the Debian Java Wiki.


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Debian Java FAQ.

$Revision: 7288 $, $Date: 2010-04-12 15:45:36 +0000 (Mon, 12 Apr 2010) $

Torsten Werner twerner@debian.org
Niels Thykier niels@thykier.net
Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña jfs@debian.org