Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 08:22:06 -0500
To: java-linux@java.blackdown.org
From: "Kevin B. Hendricks" <kbhend@dogwood.tyler.wm.edu>
Subject: JDK 1.2 TimeTable Not Possible Yet, Status Report

Hi,

In an attempt to stop the flood of "when will jdk 1.2 be out", here is a
short status report:

The JDK 1.2 runs "reasonably well" under native threads for x86, PPC and
Sparc.  Work on other processors is continuing. BUT there are problems that
need to be resolved before we can ship.  The most pressing concern is  a
non-obvious problem in native threading (or linuxthreads?) which causes
hangs on single processor machines and seg-faults on SMP machines.  This
prevents the JCK from completing which in turn prevents us from shipping it.

We are attacking the problem in 2 ways.  Dr. Phill Edwards, the author of
the 1.1.7 native threads is now looking at it (1.2 and 1.1.7 use different
native_threads implementations).  Others are porting/fixing green_threads
to work on JDK 1.2.  If we can pass the JCK under green_threads we can ship
and fix the native threads in a later release or visa-versa.

So we can't actually quote a delivery date.  As Steve pointed out, we
*must* pass the JCK *before* we can ship anything!.  Until these problems
are solved, we simply can't get the JCK to run to completion without
hanging.

We are *all* working on the problem and hope to come up with a solution
soon, but we simply can not promise any one date.

Please be patient.  Also, please remember, we are all volunteers with other
"real" jobs that must come first.  We are doing our best.



Kevin

Blackdown Porting Team!



----------------------------------------------------------
Kevin B. Hendricks
Associate Professor, Operations & Information Technology
School of Business, College of William & Mary
Williamsburg, VA 23187, kbhend@dogwood.tyler.wm.edu
http://business.tyler.wm.edu