Personally, I'd much prefer a Free alternative to Java under Cygwin to a wrapper for Cygwin around Java. That notwithstanding, I think it is a good idea to have access to Java from Cygwin, so if you think it is a better idea to make wrapper scripts as opposed to ITPing a free Java implementation, by all means - you'll have my vote in either case :)
rlc
Igor Pechtchanski wrote:
Hi, all,
I would like to hear opinions on how useful a java-wrappers package would be. The package will contain a few shell scripts that allow users to invoke the regular Java SDK tools (java, javac, javadoc) from Cygwin, making them look like their Unix counterparts (i.e., POSIX filenames). The scripts would be updated versions of those posted in <http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2003-01/msg00174.html>.
There are a few reasons why I have misgivings about this. First off, some tools (notably Ant and Tomcat) recognize Cygwin and do something specific to Cygwin anyway, which will probably (most likely) get screwed up if the java they find looks like a Unix version (this did happen to me with Ant and Cygwin-native jikes). Secondly, the tools will certainly not be foolproof (although I'll try my best to make them as robust and autonomous as possible). Thirdly, java versioning may become a problem.
Besides which, there's a procedural stumbling block in that all of my packages so far have been binary packages, and I'm not too sure exactly how to release a no-source one.
For most of the above reasons, this is not an ITP yet. FWIW, I'm also planning to package jikes (which compiles OOTB) at some point soon, but I'd like to first work out, among others, the Ant bug mentioned above.
Thanks for your (eventual) input,
Igor