Re: [Sablevm-developer] Obsoleting sablevm-classpath NOW!

[Stephen C. <cr...@ds...>]

Hi Etienne,

> SableVM does not have *any* sablevm-specific class.  It simply uses
> the /vm/reference classes with very *minor* modifications (currently
> some changes are more than minor simply because it has not yet been
> put into upstream classpath; e.g. fills in reflection classes, etc.).

Sounds like Kissme, though in the Kissme case I call those classes
kissme specific.  A very minor difference is still a difference.

> SableVM needs no Java classes of its own. 

Kissme currently has a couple of Java classes that implement the system
class loader.

> Also, strictly speaking, a
> class outside glibj.zip (which, by the way, should be called libclasspath.jar)
> is in a *different* runtime package than any class withing this file,
> if one is to follow closely the JVM spec, so the package-private classes
> have to live in libclasspath.jar.

Interesting ... 

Skimming through the JVM spec, I haven't found where it states that all
package-private classes in a package must live in the same ZIP file.

Could you point out for me where it says this?

> Also, I see no reason for SableVM to need to build classpath twice:
> - once to build classpath itself, and
> - once to re-build the VM*.java classes just for sablevm to be able
>    to put those classes in an awkward place on the system...

This is only necessary if you insist in putting all system classes into
the same ZIP file.

> I really do not see various VMs sharing the same Classpath installation;
> ther would be just too much possible problems.

I don't see these problems.  In fact, from what I've heard from others,
I'm pretty sure that Jikes RVM, JC and Kissme could happily coexist with
a single Classpath development sandbox and a single install directory
containing one copy of glibj.jar and the Classpath native libraries.
 
> So, to answer your question: out-of-the-box means:
> 1- A user downloads SableCC (written in C) and compiles it (needs gcc).
> 2- Same user downloads Classpath (written in C and Java), and compiles it
>     (needs gcc and jikes).
> 3- User runs Java software. :-)

With Kissme, you do step 2 before step 1.  And you need to run the 
"./configure" scripts in both Classpath and Kissme.  But I think that
Kissme still qualifies as "out-of-the-box" by your criteria.

-- Steve