RE:Questions about CORBA: GNU Classpath?

[Meskauskas Audrius <au...@bluewin.ch>]

Jacek>I wonder what options do we have to use as a CORBA implementation in
Jacek>Geronimo (as a ASF project). I'm not familiar with the nuances of
Jacek>miscellaneous licenses, but unless I'm mistaken we don't have too much
Jacek>choices - Sun's ORB or OpenORB, right? Again, unless I'm mistaken if I
Jacek>were to be asked I'd say we ain't too happy with both, but couldn't say
Jacek>why :( Wiki is silent on this, too.

Jacek>Yes, I'm lost and asking for a help - could anyone answer where we are
Jacek>with the CORBA stuff?


A very serious work is already done writing GNU Classpath CORBA implementation.
We have all classes for 1.2 and 1.3 and we have near all classes for 
1.4, including working and tested PortableServer and DynamicAnys. The
implementation accepts the output of Sun's 1.4 idlj. It is covered by numerous
tests from the former cost.omg.org, in some cases showing even more stable
work than Sun's ORB. Despite this implementation is written as a part of the
complete java runtime library, it can be rather easily separated from the rest
of Classpath and used independently, if required. 

The license of this implementation is a very seriously modified GPL with the
following exception:
"the copyright holders of this library give you permission to link this library
with independent modules to produce an executable, regardless of the 
license terms of these independent modules" It was specially designed to be
compatible with Apache; I think, it should be. 

The most important, the GNU Classpath CORBA development is currently very
active. If you report a bug or discover a feature that was forgotten to implement,
the problem is likely to be fixed very soon.

I would like to suggest to think about GNU Classpath CORBA as about one of the
possible candidates.

Links:
http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/classpath.html
http://developer.classpath.org/mediation/ClasspathCurrentTopics (see CORBA implementation).

Regards

Audrius Meskauskas

Re: Questions about CORBA: GNU Classpath?

["Geir Magnusson Jr." <ge...@apache.org>]

On Aug 9, 2005, at 12:21 PM, Meskauskas Audrius wrote:

> In principle the license and goals are stated on our website:
> http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/license.html
>
> In theory there should be no persuading needed since the Apache  
> hackers
> have already said that they would like to use GNU Classpath as core
> library for the Harmony initiative and that the license is in  
> principle
> not a problem for adoption.

The license currently is a problem.  However, we're trying to not let  
that stop us.

> The main thing holding things back is that
> you need more then just the core class libraries for building a full
> free j2se replacement. See Apache incubator for details about
> the Harmony project.

I'm familiar with it :)

> The GNU Classpath licensing exception is not a nonsense; due this  
> single sentence in the header I have got to write
> currently 851 CORBA class from scratch in spite of the existence of  
> the
> LGPL-licensed JackORB and Jonathan, as the licensing differences
> are too dramatic.
> This is because exception eliminates the pressure to release the  
> closely
> interacting code under GPL or LGPL, opening way for much more  
> solutions and
> making the whole spirit of the license maybe even closer to Apache  
> than
> to original GPL.
>
> If you think that accepting Classpath it is a very responsible  
> decission, for you, I would like you to suggest to contact Cliff  
> Schmidt at apache.org.
> Cliff has spoken at lenght about legal/license issues with FSF  
> legal people and knows what the intentions and goals are of our  
> licenses.
>

Thx - we'll certainly be watching carefully to see how those  
discussions develop.

geir


> With respect
>
> Audrius Meskauskas.
>
>
> Jeff Genender wrote:
>
>
>> Meskauskas,
>>
>> Thanks for offering this up.  But I *think*, and I can easily be  
>> corrected, the licensing is the issue.  For our initial  
>> implementation, I believe we must have software that is compatible  
>> with the Apache license and IIUC, GNU classpath is GPL.
>>
>> Jeff
>>
>> Meskauskas Audrius wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Jacek>I wonder what options do we have to use as a CORBA  
>>> implementation in
>>> Jacek>Geronimo (as a ASF project). I'm not familiar with the  
>>> nuances of
>>> Jacek>miscellaneous licenses, but unless I'm mistaken we don't  
>>> have too much
>>> Jacek>choices - Sun's ORB or OpenORB, right? Again, unless I'm  
>>> mistaken if I
>>> Jacek>were to be asked I'd say we ain't too happy with both, but  
>>> couldn't say
>>> Jacek>why :( Wiki is silent on this, too.
>>>
>>> Jacek>Yes, I'm lost and asking for a help - could anyone answer  
>>> where we are
>>> Jacek>with the CORBA stuff?
>>>
>>>
>>> A very serious work is already done writing GNU Classpath CORBA  
>>> implementation.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>

-- 
Geir Magnusson Jr                                  +1-203-665-6437
geirm@apache.org

Re: Questions about CORBA: GNU Classpath?

[Meskauskas Audrius <au...@bluewin.ch>]

In principle the license and goals are stated on our website:
http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/license.html

In theory there should be no persuading needed since the Apache hackers
have already said that they would like to use GNU Classpath as core
library for the Harmony initiative and that the license is in principle
not a problem for adoption. The main thing holding things back is that
you need more then just the core class libraries for building a full
free j2se replacement. See Apache incubator for details about
the Harmony project. 

The GNU Classpath licensing exception is not a nonsense; 
due this single sentence in the header I have got to write
currently 851 CORBA class from scratch in spite of the existence of the
LGPL-licensed JackORB and Jonathan, as the licensing differences
are too dramatic. 

This is because exception eliminates the pressure to release the closely
interacting code under GPL or LGPL, opening way for much more solutions and
making the whole spirit of the license maybe even closer to Apache than
to original GPL.

If you think that accepting Classpath it is a very responsible decission, 
for you, I would like you to suggest to contact Cliff Schmidt at apache.org.
Cliff has spoken at lenght about legal/license issues with FSF legal 
people and knows what the intentions and goals are of our licenses.

With respect

Audrius Meskauskas.


Jeff Genender wrote:

> Meskauskas,
>
> Thanks for offering this up.  But I *think*, and I can easily be 
> corrected, the licensing is the issue.  For our initial 
> implementation, I believe we must have software that is compatible 
> with the Apache license and IIUC, GNU classpath is GPL.
>
> Jeff
>
> Meskauskas Audrius wrote:
>
>> Jacek>I wonder what options do we have to use as a CORBA 
>> implementation in
>> Jacek>Geronimo (as a ASF project). I'm not familiar with the nuances of
>> Jacek>miscellaneous licenses, but unless I'm mistaken we don't have 
>> too much
>> Jacek>choices - Sun's ORB or OpenORB, right? Again, unless I'm 
>> mistaken if I
>> Jacek>were to be asked I'd say we ain't too happy with both, but 
>> couldn't say
>> Jacek>why :( Wiki is silent on this, too.
>>
>> Jacek>Yes, I'm lost and asking for a help - could anyone answer where 
>> we are
>> Jacek>with the CORBA stuff?
>>
>>
>> A very serious work is already done writing GNU Classpath CORBA 
>> implementation.
>
>
>

Re: Questions about CORBA: GNU Classpath?

[Jeff Genender <jg...@savoirtech.com>]

Meskauskas,

Thanks for offering this up.  But I *think*, and I can easily be 
corrected, the licensing is the issue.  For our initial implementation, 
I believe we must have software that is compatible with the Apache 
license and IIUC, GNU classpath is GPL.

Jeff

Meskauskas Audrius wrote:
> Jacek>I wonder what options do we have to use as a CORBA implementation in
> Jacek>Geronimo (as a ASF project). I'm not familiar with the nuances of
> Jacek>miscellaneous licenses, but unless I'm mistaken we don't have too 
> much
> Jacek>choices - Sun's ORB or OpenORB, right? Again, unless I'm mistaken 
> if I
> Jacek>were to be asked I'd say we ain't too happy with both, but 
> couldn't say
> Jacek>why :( Wiki is silent on this, too.
> 
> Jacek>Yes, I'm lost and asking for a help - could anyone answer where we 
> are
> Jacek>with the CORBA stuff?
> 
> 
> A very serious work is already done writing GNU Classpath CORBA 
> implementation.
> We have all classes for 1.2 and 1.3 and we have near all classes for 
> 1.4, including working and tested PortableServer and DynamicAnys. The
> implementation accepts the output of Sun's 1.4 idlj. It is covered by 
> numerous
> tests from the former cost.omg.org, in some cases showing even more stable
> work than Sun's ORB. Despite this implementation is written as a part of 
> the
> complete java runtime library, it can be rather easily separated from 
> the rest
> of Classpath and used independently, if required.
> The license of this implementation is a very seriously modified GPL with 
> the
> following exception:
> "the copyright holders of this library give you permission to link this 
> library
> with independent modules to produce an executable, regardless of the 
> license terms of these independent modules" It was specially designed to be
> compatible with Apache; I think, it should be.
> The most important, the GNU Classpath CORBA development is currently very
> active. If you report a bug or discover a feature that was forgotten to 
> implement,
> the problem is likely to be fixed very soon.
> 
> I would like to suggest to think about GNU Classpath CORBA as about one 
> of the
> possible candidates.
> 
> Links:
> http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/classpath.html
> http://developer.classpath.org/mediation/ClasspathCurrentTopics (see 
> CORBA implementation).
> 
> Regards
> 
> Audrius Meskauskas
> 
> 
> 
>