[OSM-talk] Java and freedom

[Petter Reinholdtsen]

[Nick Hill]
> My contributions to OSM are limited by this stumbling block. I am
> not inclined to use non-free java. I have been brushing up on my
> Java over the past few days to see if there is any way (with my
> currently very limited java knowledge) I can make the OSM Java
> applications available to free software platforms.

I have spent the last few months working with the GNU Classpath
community, reporting bugs about errors detected by the OSM applet and
the JOSM program, and am happy to report that progress has been made.
I welcome help.

The last blocker for the OSM applet (running in standalone mode) is
<URL:http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=27700>, and with the
workaround patch from that bug in place in the CVS version of GNU
Classpath, the applet runs and seem to be usable.  Check the
screenshot on <URL: http://folk.uio.no/pre/osm-classpath.png >.  It is
slow, but that might improve when I get one of the faster JVMs (I test
with jamvm because it is the only one working for me at the moment).

As for JOSM, it depend on Java 1.5 features, and these are only
available in the generics branch of GNU Classpath.  That branch will
be merged into the main branch as soon as gcc (gcj) support the new
language features.  Not sure how far off that is, but when that is
done, I expect only minor fixes are needed to get JOSM to work too.

There is a bigger issue with applets and security with GNU Classpath.
Two weeks ago the applet viewer code was merged into GNU Classpath,
but there is no security manager writtten, and the entire code base of
GNU Classpath need to be reviewed to verify that all security checks
are in place.  This is work that is unlikely to be finished this year,
unless more than the person currently working on it dig into it.  I
try to help, but have very limited time to spend on it. :(

Friendly,
-- 
Petter Reinholdtsen