New OpenJDK Project: LinalgAlg and Statistics API

[Mark Reinhold]

> Date: Fri, 25 May 2007 11:20 +0000 (GMT)
> From: alexanderschunk at t-online.de (Alexander Schunk)

> i would like to propose two new OpenJDK libraries: JLinAlg and JProb.
> The LinAlg API extends the functionality of the java.lang.math library and offers
> classes for Vector, Matrix and Complex calculations.
> The Statistics API offers classes for statistic calculations.
> These packages can be added to Java via the extension mechanism so these are extended APIs.

Thanks for your proposal, but per the interim Project guidelines [1] a
new Project can only be proposed by a Member of an existing Group.

The initial set of Groups was seeded from the Sun engineering team, plus
the Governance Board [2], so perhaps you could find someone in one of
those Groups willing to sponsor your proposal.

Aside from that administrative issue there's also the question of whether
these would be appropriate Projects in the OpenJDK Community.  Ultimately
this sort of question will be answered by the Constitution, but in the
interim period it's up to Sun to decide.

My own take is that these may be useful libraries but they don't seem
particularly related to the purpose of this Community, which is to
collaborate on the OpenJDK source code.  In that light Projects such as
replacements for encumbered code [3,4,5], alternative implementations of
internal interfaces [6], implementations of JSRs in flight [7], and ports
to new architectures and operating systems are all clearly within scope.
Libraries, however useful, that simply extend existing parts of the
platform would likely be better off as independent projects on java.net.

What do others think?

- Mark


[1] http://openjdk.java.net/projects/
[2] http://openjdk.java.net/groups/gb/
[3] http://openjdk.java.net/projects/audio-engine/
[4] http://openjdk.java.net/projects/font-scaler/
[5] http://openjdk.java.net/projects/graphics-rasterizer/
[6] http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/announce/2007-May/000001.html
[7] http://openjdk.java.net/projects/modules/