what is the state of awt in lingcj?

Fri Jul 13 22:53:00 GMT 2001

Cedric Berger <cedric@wireless-networks.com> writes:
> I don't really get your point... gcc is certainly used to compile proprietary programs.....

The point is our goal is not to make it easier to use non-Free products.
Being able to compile non-Free code is rather different from being
able to link with non-Free code. While we're far from either (when it
comes to GUI-heavy code), GCC has always had the goal of being able to
process (compile) non-Free code, but making it easy to link GNU code
with non-Free code is not a goal, in fact the whole point of the GPL
is to prohibit that. Of course libgcj does not use the GPL, so
you can (intentionally) link it with non-Free code, but it is not
a priority.
> Moreover, if JBuilder can be one day compiled with GCJ, which will help Borland
> run it maybee faster and on more platform, maybee Borland (and other commercial
> entities) will see the light and help GCJ development?

Maybe, maybe not. Some companies see the value of getting directly
involved with Free Software development; many do not. It is desirable
that GCJ can be used for non-Free applications *in general*, but
how well we handle a particular non-Free non-benchmark application
that is owned by a company that is not contributing to Free software
is not particularly interesting.
Of course I'd *like* to be able to build and run as many application
as possible, but clearly Free ones have to have higher priority.
> And what about, for a 80% solution, distributing GCJ with the Sun's
> JFC 1.1.1, which is freely redistributable..... In the mean time,

I don't think the GCJ project can do that officially. We
make it *possible*, once we have a sufficiently-powerful AWT,
for people to use JFC 1.1.1, but we cannot distribute it ourselves.
-- 
	--Per Bothner
per@bothner.com http://www.bothner.com/per/