Vijay Tatkar's Blog

JVM now compiles with Sun Studio on Linux
Yep, you heard it right.
The OpenJDK team has pulled off yet another fantastic feat here: http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/jdk7/hotspot/rev/485d403e94e1.
Serguei Spitsyn integrated recently into this changeset.

So, should we get excited about compiling OpenJDK/HotSpot? Doesnt Sun Studio on Linux already compile a bunch of industrial scale applications?
Indeed we should.  Some reasons why:

• HotSpot is a very non-trivial piece of C++ code, so getting it to compile and optimize isnt easy.
• This work happened with collab between the Sun Studio QA team and the OpenJDK team.
• HotSpot had never compiled with Sun Studio before and its Linux code was full of GCCisms. Doling the change to allow this compilation path improves the code quality of OpenJDK.
• This opens the door to other things on Linux: dbx, NB-IDE, Performance Analyzer, Dtrace GUI and other tools to work with this.

IMO, the next logical step is to get OpenJDK projects within NetBeans (Sun Studio) IDE so OpenJDK developers can use a real IDE for development.

As Kelly Ohair mentions in his blog , it opens up new doors for both the Sun Studio and for OpenJDK teams.



Posted by tatkar ( May 07 2008, 03:56:51 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

OpenSolaris launched and Sun Studio is in the network package repository OpenSolaris is here! Its formal launch at CommunityOne (the day prior to JavaOne in San Francisco) has attracted a lot of attention. It was picked up by The Register (here), Application Developer Trends (here), etc. Comments have ranged from "Cool, this is new and exciting" to "Looks just like Linux" (including the site www.opensolaris.com).
An interesting bit of praise comes from this article in ZDnet, titled What Ubuntu wants to be, when it grows up
OpenSolaris comes with full support, ranging from per incident support to a full 24x7 plan, geared fully towards supporting (as they call it) "from dorm room to the corporate board room".
OpenSolaris used to be called Project Indiana, for those in the community more familiar with that name.
 
The new distribution includes a small core operating system on a LiveCD, a network package repository, application packages, and the Sun-developed Image Packaging System (IPS) to hold it all together. With a small LiveCD, you can quickly (with just 6 clicks) install a desktop with a core set of utilities to assemble a simple desktop including Firefox and Thunderbird. IPS lets users easily download and install only the OpenSolaris components they want, rather than a monolithic bundle. And  IPS also supports current Solaris packages, for backward compatibility. All the old stuff still works the same way. You can add/customize your desktop or server with components you need, as you need them through the network package repository. The classic "packages" are all there in the repository:

• Sun Studio 12, which is used to build OpenSolaris
• NetBeans IDE For Java, C/C++ and Ruby Development
• Project GlassFish, the free, open-source, production-ready, supported application server
• Java
• MySQL, Sun's OpenSource database
• OpenOffice, Sun's Free Office Productivity Suite

Give it a try! I think you'll like it. I know I did and I have it installed now on a Toshiba Tecra laptop and a Sun Ultra 20 Desktop.
Posted by tatkar ( May 07 2008, 10:56:27 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]