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Netscape releases Free JVM, ElectricalFire 48

Posted by sengan from the to-hack-ElectricalFire-or-to-hack-Kaffe? dept.
HoserHead writes "Netscape has released a new JVM-JIT compiler called ElectricalFire. It originally started as an in-house commercial compiler project but is now purely Open Source: there are now no plans to turn it into a commercial product. ElectricalFire also contains none of Sun's code. Check it out at its homepage on mozilla.org." It's NPL'd and they are calling for developers.
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Netscape releases Free JVM, ElectricalFire More

Netscape releases Free JVM, ElectricalFire

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  • NPL, Noosphere, gimme gimme (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    (1) Great, another "open source" project that's incompatible with the GPL. Woohoo!

    (2) ElectricalFire has a tiny Noosphere. There are Free (GPL'd) JVM's available.

    (3) I guess AOL has started cutting costs hardcore now. "Who needs these expensive developers when we can get people to do the work for free?"

  • Not a JVM! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    From the info I read on the mozilla web site
    it looks like EF is just a JIT compiler. It
    is not a JVM like Kaffe or Japhar or the JDK.

  • JVM's are the IRC clients of early 2000's (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    It looks like everyone and their mom is going to implement their own JVM instead of working with existing code. It'll be just like IRC clients: a zillion implementations with little differentiation.

    I find it very difficult to get excited about this new JVM. Any clever implementation tricks it may offer won't give it the advantage for long; they can be easily folded into existing open source JVM's.

  • This was mentionend in Linux Journal a long time ago (shortly after they mentionend that they were releasing the code to mozilla...).

  • Really? (Score:1)

    by Pierce ( 154 )
    It was in the mag, I'll check to see if I still have it (so I can get the #). It was also mentionend shortly after on the Java Lobby mailing list (I had asked if anyone else had heard of it).

  • No, it's quite customary for Slashdotters to bash everything not GPL. I remember this one widget library that announced it would use a quite open license. It is still hated by them...

    If it's not L/GPL, it's crap.
  • Seriously, it's not getting off the ground unless EF gets a non-Sun, LGPL'ed version of the java class libs. A GTK linked version would do the trick.

    ---

  • One more thing:

    There are no plans to make this a commercial project. Netscape just gave a fast JVM/JIT compiler with a lot of potential to the Open Source community (mozilla.org) and you're bashing them for it. Makes a *lot* of sense.

  • If they really don't plan on releasing this as a commercial product, why did they use the NPL instead of the GPL? Or perhaps a GPL with an out to allow linking with NPL source.


    I don't like the fact that there's more source code coming out that's incompatible with the GPL. I'd rather put my support behind TYA.
  • I am a little curious wether JIT compilation is the way to go.. I believe it would be better if a JVM worked in two threads: one thread performs batch compilation and one thread interprets the JVM code, but switching to a compiled method when available. The interpreter should also move methods to the top of the compilation queue when they are entered. With the JIT approach, I am afraid that interactive programs would lose. The compiler would not use the idle time, whereas the concurrent approach would use it.
    .... Or is there something that I have not understood?

  • Yawn (Score:1)

    by ptomblin ( 1378 )
    Another partially done JIT/JVM. Just what the world needs - instead of one open source JIT/JVM that works, we've got 4 or 5, none of which can handle java.awt classes.

    This is the biggest problem with open source - everybody wants the ego boost of doing their own project, rather than adding their time and effort to somebody else's project. So you end up with 30 half-assed projects instead of one or two good ones.
  • You want to know how commercial software is any better? I'll tell you:
    - There is one commercial JVM project, Sun's, and it's produced a working JVM.
    - There are a shitload of Open Source JVM projects, and not one of them has produced a working JVM. Kaffe? Nope, it doesn't work with any of my programs? ElectricalFire? Nope, no java.awt support. Japhar? No, same problem. GCJ? No. CACAO? No.

    See, lots of projects, no results. If there were *one* project that all those people were contributing to, maybe there would be a hope in hell of actually producing something.
  • It will take quite a while before EF will begin to run full applications (at least reliably). In the meantime, TYA is an excellent JIT front-end to Sun's JVM. It gives quite a performance boost on Linux w/ JDK/JRE 1.17.

    ftp://gonzalez.cyberus.ca/pub/Linux/java/
  • Did anyone else see "Coming to America"?
    There was a band in it called "Sexual Chocolate" and I can only assume that's where it came from.
    the movie itself was light fare, but pretty fuckin' funny IMHHO
  • Old Qt license mind you. Even RMS likes the QPL as it is now.
  • Does this overlap with Kaffe work?

  • ROFL! (Score:1)

    by kzinti ( 9651 )
    Surf over to the ElectricalFire site, and read its FAQ -- especially the part near the end about the project's code name. What a riot!
  • This is big if only because it's the first public release of code from Netscape since coming under the wing of AOL (though the deal's not done yet, Netscape is surely already dancing to AOL's tune). This bodes well for AOL's future relationship with the OS world.
  • RMS accepts the QPL. I would guess there has never been a license besides GPL & LGPL that he really likes.

    RMS likes the GPL, of course. I don't think he really likes the LGPL; it's a watered-down version of the GPL, which is what he really wants everyone to use. RMS probably considers the LGPL as a "necessary evil" that should be abolished in favor of the full GPL as soon as possible.

    I seem to recall hearing (way back when) that RMS was very reluctant to release the LGPL, but eventually gave in and allowed it. (Notice that he always promotes the GPL over the LGPL.) No, I don't have a reference handy to substantiate that; it's just what I recall hearing or reading back when the LGPL was released.

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