[aarch64-port-dev ] OpenJDK extension to AArch64 and Windows

[Andrew Dinn]

On 25/06/2020 16:05, Andrew Haley wrote:
> On 25/06/2020 15:49, Dalibor Topic wrote:
>> Typically such efforts would become with a porting Project of their own,
>> just as the aarch64-linux port did back in 2013 [1], as that allows a
>> community of developers across organizations to start to collaborate
>> around a shared repository, mailing list, etc. on a specific porting task.
>>
>> It also makes it easier to do so, by allowing the initial set of
>> developers on the port to become committers on the new project from the
>> start, without having to work their way up to 8 or more significant
>> sponsored changes first [0]. So that's what I (with my Porting Group
>> Lead hat on) would usually recommend that course for new ports.
> 
> That would be madness.
> 
> The Windows port to AArch64 is vastly simpler than the aarch64-linux
> port by more than an order of magnitude, because the AArch64 back end
> barely changes at all and the Windows (x86) part doesn't change very
> much because it's mostly C++ code and the Windows APIs are pretty
> stable.
> 
> The code as submitted by Microsoft is almost ready to go. Introducing
> a whole lot of process at this stage would be entirely inappropriate
> and greatly increase the work for both HotSpot developers and the
> Microsoft porters.
I agree entirely with Andrew. If you look at the webrevs provided by
Microsoft they are smaller than a great number of patches that have only
been covered by a JIRA issue. The amount of code touched and the
significance of the changes is far too small to merit a whole project
(or, I would say, a JEP).

To me this contribution is a relatively small extension of the work
covered by the existing AArch64 port. I cannot see any reason to smother
it in a bureaucratic process that is very unlikely to improve the
outcome and, indeed, much more likely to achieve the opposite.

regards,


Andrew Dinn
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