[OpenJDK 2D-Dev] Still waiting for review

[Mark Wielaard]

Hi Martin,

On Mon, 2008-12-08 at 13:04 +0100, Martin von Gagern wrote:
> Mark Wielaard wrote:
> > Martin, if you like we can use IcedTea http://icedtea.classpath.org/ as
> > staging area for these fixes. That is what I do after testing. The above
> > two fixes are already in IcedTea6 for a couple of months since I know
> > other users are seeing the same bugs. That way things are at least
> > picked up in a timely manner for the various GNU/Linux distros out
> > there. http://icedtea.classpath.org/hg/icedtea6
> 
> Looking at the IcedTea FAQs I read "It is not a fork of the OpenJDK, and
> doesn't contain the OpenJDK source code". So I'm a bit surprised about
> the suggestion. Looking at the repository, I see a collection of
> patches, which seems to be the place you had in mind.
> 
> While I like the idea of making my chnges available to distros even
> before they have been officially accepted into OpenJDK, it feels a bit
> like a misuse of the IcedTea project. A community-driven experimental
> fork would be more suitable to stage such patches imho.

There are forks in various degrees. IcedTea isn't really a fork, just as
the ClosedJDK Sun creates from OpenJDK isn't really a fork. They just
includes stuff that isn't yet in OpenJDK proper for various reasons, or
stuff that extends it (like applet, webstart support, ports to various
architectures, etc.)

> As acceptance into OpenJDK still is my primary goal, and as Igor's mail
> indicates light at the end of the tunnel in that direction, I'm inclined
> to rather wait for the review than invest additional effort into pushing
> those patches into yet another project.

I don't really see it as yet another project. It is just a place to
store patches so they aren't "falling through the cracks" as Dalibor
puts it. I agree with him that it is pretty hard to keep track these
days though :{ The icedtea/patches dirs now contain 100+ patches, which
is indeed a bit much. But at least it makes sure that there is forward
progress.

> Still thanks for the suggestion, I'll keep it in mind and get back to
> that if things don't work out here.

I am happy to see progress also!

Cheers,

Mark