Edward Rayl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>Does JPluck work under a free software JDK/JRE? > Interesting question. Since I've never paid for the Sun JDK/JRE and Sun > does not request payment on their web site in order to download it, this > has seemed 'free' enough to me.
The Free Software Definition is kept at http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html and is linked from the front page of the Plucker web site at the words "Free Software". Payment is largely irrelevant. The freedoms to use, redistribute, modify and derive are what it's about. Basically, to be able to use forever and fix as needed. Plucker is free software. JPluck is GPL, ie free software, according to its web site, although there's a broken link. Sun Java is not. The Sun Java licence also has a nasty legal timebomb, the termination clause. > Thousands of software products now run on the JRE and no one seems to ask > your question. Could you elaborate? Many of them run on free JREs (eg SableVM), can be byte-compiled by free JDKs, or native compiled by true Java Compilers (eg GCJ). > I have to admit that I don't understand your question. Are there 'free' > implementations, by your definition, which are compatible with JRE > 1.4.1_01? If so, I'm sure that JPluck would work on them. I think SableVM is only just Java 1.2, let alone 1.4.1_01 yet. The Java spec changes quite quickly, it seems, in ways incompatible with previous minor releases. Even if one does claim to run Java 1.4.1, given my past experience, I'm somewhat more sceptical. I'll wait to hear success reports from people who have tried before me. MJR _______________________________________________ plucker-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.rubberchicken.org/mailman/listinfo/plucker-list
