FW: Announcing Finalists for the OpenJDK Community Innovator's Challenge

[Steve Bohne]

Hi Ted,

Congratulations on getting accepted.  Are you planning to include the 
Hotspot repository in this project?  Some time ago, I was involved with 
a similar effort to build Hotspot under Visual C++ 2005 Express, so I'm 
familiar with some of this.  Most of the immediate build issues were 
simple syntax problems.  So the Hotspot repository should be pretty 
easy, with respect to source changes, at least for VC 2008.

For MinGW32, one issue might be that the current Hotspot/Windows 
makefiles are mostly nmake format.  We still use that format because it 
provides an easy capability for so-called "batch" compiles, which makes 
Windows Hotspot builds extremely fast.  It would be nice to have 
something equivalent if a new Makefile format is used.

Another thing to watch out for with Hotspot is performance.  Some of the 
C++ subsystems, particularly GC, can be sensitive to the quality of the 
generated code.  In the past we've seen noticeable changes in benchmark 
scores from C++ compiler upgrades (thankfully, mostly positive changes.) 
  Just something to keep in mind, especially if the free version of VC 
2008 or MinGW32 omits some optimizations that exists in the current 
compilers.

Finally, this isn't Hotspot related, but one other problem we had with 
the free VC 2005 compiler was lack of ATL support.  One of the other 
repositories had a dependency on ATL that wasn't satisfied by the 
Express compiler.  It may be the case that the dependency was removed 
since then, or that the 2008 product now includes the support.  Just 
something to be aware of.

Others on this list can probably comment better on non-Hotspot issues.

Steve

Ted Neward wrote:
> Given that it would appear that my proposal for updating the build process
> to use a free compiler has apparently been accepted (see below), is there a
> good time to start thinking about doing the migration work? Are there any
> major build changes up & coming? I know Kelly has said there's some plans to
> move the corba project out to an entirely Ant-driven process, so if that's
> going to happen any time soon, I'll just leave it out of the migration
> process. (I think the corba stuff still uses the C compiler for some of it,
> no?)
> 
> There's a two-step process I want to take with this:
> 1) Let's leave most of the build infrastructure in place and just try to
> swap in Visual C++ 2008 Express.
> 2) Let's see about moving over to MinGW32's infrastructure (instead of
> Cygwin's) and see if that doesn't help reduce the path problems we're
> currently facing in the Windows build of OpenJDK.
> 2) Let's see about moving over to the MinGW32 gcc compiler for building on
> windows, and thus remove the dependency on Microsoft's compiler completely,
> in case VC++ ever moves out of a free (as in beer or as in speech) SKU.
> 
> My goal is to ensure that I hit #1 by the close of the project period
> (August), and get as far down 2 and 3 as possible.
> 
> Any thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas for how best to tackle this? You (the guys
> at Sun) have a lot more experience with this codebase than I, so any tips,
> pointers or suggestions are appreciated.
> 
> Ted Neward
> Java, .NET, XML Services
> Consulting, Teaching, Speaking, Writing
> http://www.tedneward.com
>  
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: announce-bounces at openjdk.java.net [mailto:announce-
>> bounces at openjdk.java.net] On Behalf Of Rich Sands
>> Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 6:54 PM
>> To: announce at openjdk.java.net; challenge-discuss at openjdk.java.net
>> Subject: Announcing Finalists for the OpenJDK Community Innovator's
>> Challenge
>>
>> OpenJDK Community,
>>
>> We're pleased to announce the finalists for the OpenJDK Community
>> Innovator's
>> Challenge. The judges have been meeting and discussing the 18 proposals
>> received
>> during the first phase of the Challenge, and evaluating these proposals
>> based on
>> their technical merit, and their likely impact on the OpenJDK Community
>> and the
>> adoption of OpenJDK-based implementations in new markets, for new
>> applications and
>> uses. It was not an easy decision, as most of the proposals were
>> thoughtful and
>> demonstrated passion and commitment to this code base and the
>> community. The seven
>> Finalists, in order of receipt of their proposals, are:
>>
>>
>> Closures for Java                                    Neal Gafter
>>
>> Implement XRender pipeline for Java2D                Clemens Eisserer
>>
>> Provide date and time library from JSR-310           Stephen
>> Colebourne,
>>                                                       Michael
>> Nascimento Santos
>>
>> Portable GUI backends                                Roman Kennke,
>> Mario Torre
>>
>> Virtual Machine Interface                            Andrew John Hughes
>>
>> Free Software synthesizer implemention for
>> the OpenJDK project                                  Karl Helgason
>>
>> OpenJDK on Windows                                   Ted Neward
>>
>>
>> The judges, all Sun employees, are Alan Bateman, Alex Buckley, Danny
>> Coward, Joe
>> Darcy, Ray Gans, James Gosling, Onno Kluyt, Jim Melvin, Alex Potochkin,
>> Phil Race,
>> Mark Reinhold, and Rich Sands.
>>
>> We want to thank everyone who has entered their proposal into the
>> Challenge. It is
>> very exciting to see the level of enthusiasm and interest among
>> developers for the
>> OpenJDK code base. The finalists were chosen based on the completeness
>> and relevance
>> of their proposals and the degree to which the judges felt the end
>> results were both
>> achievable and valuable to the community at this time. Proposals that
>> were not
>> selected as finalists are still valuable and interesting but Sun could
>> not select
>> them all! The judges hope that everyone who has participated so far in
>> the Challenge
>> will consider continuing their efforts in the Community, and
>> collaborating with their
>> peers and with Sun to further the goals of the OpenJDK project.
>>
>> One other thing to remember -- there is no guarantee that completed
>> Challenge
>> projects will be integrated into the main OpenJDK code base, or into
>> the Java SE
>> Platform specification (which is governed by the JCP). Being chosen as
>> a Finalist or
>> completing a project for the Challenge might help to demonstrate the
>> feasibility of a
>> particular API or language proposal but it does not say anything about
>> the likelihood
>> of such a project becoming an approved JSR, or about the code being
>> integrated into
>> the main branch of the OpenJDK code base. Both the spec and the code
>> are managed
>> under processes that are separate from the Challenge.
>>
>> The finalists will be notified and project space set up for them if
>> needed in the
>> OpenJDK Community. As required by the Challenge rules, work must be
>> done in the open,
>> and the entire OpenJDK community is welcome to watch and comment as the
>> projects
>> progress. The Innovators Challenge will close on August 4th at which
>> time each
>> project will be reviewed to verify that it met the completion criteria
>> of its
>> proposal. Cash prizes will be awarded shortly afterwards.
>>
>> Thanks again to everyone who has participated. Good luck to all
>> Finalists on your
>> projects!
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>>      --  rms
>>
>> --
>> Rich Sands                     Phone: +1 781 881 4067 / x81524
>> Community Marketing Manager    Email: richard.sands at sun.com
>> Java SE Marketing              SMS: 6172830027 at vtext.com
>> Sun Microsystems, Inc.
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> NOTICE:  This email message is for the sole use of the intended
>> recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged
>> information.  Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or
>> distribution is prohibited.  If you are not the intended
>> recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy
>> all copies of the original message.
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>> No virus found in this incoming message.
>> Checked by AVG.
>> Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.21.7/1332 - Release Date:
>> 3/17/2008 10:48 AM
>>
> 
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG. 
> Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.21.7/1333 - Release Date: 3/18/2008
> 8:10 AM
>  
>