Kaffe 1.1.2 has been released. The announcement mentions many bugfixes, improved support for NIO, JSSE, RMI, JVMPI and further merges with GNU Classpath. Furthermore, kaffe 1.1.2 can run Java applications like tomcat4, eXist , and javax.sound applications like JavaLayer and JOrbis.
Kaffe 1.1.2 Released
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Why do you say “Too little, too late” ? I think kaffe is an awesome project, jre is huge and kaffe is like a 10th of the size.. Just wondering why you feel that way.
Good to see kaffe is still going.
Many in the opensource have been whining about Sun not opensourcing(well, you can get the sources actually) Java, yet opensource have not been able to produce an useable java implementation itself. Kaffe might be it.(or gcj..)
Two kaffe. Tak.
In all honesty I’ve never heard of it (not in this context anyway). I shall explore.
Now, now, Bram, it’s available for Syllable. 🙂
Kaffe was by far the fastest performing JVM when Java was still at version 1.1. Let’s hope they can bring their incredible implementation up to speed and this will make Java under Linux *really* sexy !
whatever happened to that?
We’re planning to merge it in into the main tree on kaffe.org. We need a few BeOS developers to do it, though. So if you want to help out, and have not seen Sun’s sources or are bound by an NDA preventing you from contributing, come over to the kaffe mailing list, and I can give you some update on what needs to be done.
In general, the goal is to get the working ports merged in more quickly, so that their developers/users get the benefits of the huge class library improvements in the CVS. To see what I’m talking about, take a look of the developement of kaffe source code base in the CVS: http://www.kaffe.org/~robilad/loc.png . If your kaffe port is stuck at 1.0.6, then you’ve missed out on 2 years of development
BTW, I’d like to see the AtheOS/Syllable port go into the main CVS tree. Kaffe supports a lot of ‘fringe’ OSes. There are developers working on parisc-linux, parisc-hpux, m68k-amigaos, arm-riscos, so i386-syllableos or i386-atheos would be a nice addition to the main tree. Any idea where I can find the sources to the port?
Good news. 🙂
Kaffe is the only OpenSource JVM – I think – which support AWT. (And if you download Suns JFC-Classes for Java 1.1, you can run Swing-programs, with it, too).
I like virtual machines like the JavaVM and .NET/mono.
So it is possible, to run programs – without recompiling – everywhere.
But I think, that this VMs must been OpenSource.
Look at Suns Java: It ports of it can only be published, if they are (nearly) 100% compatible to the original.
But in OpenSource-projects, _all_ steps are public.
And I don’t know, why Sun don’t put theire Java under an OpenSource-license.
Java is an trademark. So, all what is called “Java” is then still 100% compatible. But if it is OpenSource, you can publish ports, which are not yet 100% compatible. And this can then be called “Imperfectly”, “Iava” or an other name without “Java”.
An other side-effect is, that an OpenSource-Java is more independent to Sun.
If Sun goes bankrupt, an OpenSource-Java lives again. But a ClosedSource-Java is then a stagnation of a project. It is then not possible to improve it.
So, I think, it is a happy news, that Kaffe is now in version 1.1.2 out. 🙂
Greatings
Freddy
Is kaffee faster than Sun’s 1.4.2 JRE? Can I run most Java applications with it now? Is it fully compatible? Is the speed difference enough to make a difference? Can something like Eclipse run under Kaffe? If not, other than the most basic of java apps, why should I care about Kafee? Better memory footprint?
What can’t I do with Kafee that I can do with Java?
This is not a troll…I’m seriously curious and I’m sure others would like to know as well.
As far as I can tell, not much. Kaffe is a good idea, and a good product for embeded platforms, but if you run linux, windows, macosx, hp-ux, aix, or any other OS that their is an official port for, then kaffe is not going to get you anything that you dont already have. I would love to run tomcat 4 under OpenBSD, but because thier is no official(sun) port of a JDK, my options are to run it under linux emulation, or run it under the Kaffe JDK(which doesnt work out of the box like it does with a SUN or IBM JDK). So its not about getting more.
Kaffe doesn’t run a lot of current Java apps, or use current java libraries. It implements an older Java, which is partially why. It is slower than Sun’s HotSpot VM.
Sorry Kaj
. Is it included with the regular distro?
Speaking of which .. perhaps Vanders should (if he doesn’t already? I don’t know) put all available applications on the cdrom. There’s plenty of space methinks. Speaking of which .. I still have to order mine. (And Vanders is such a sneaky little guy .. he knows well enough that there isn’t a way to send him 7eur in bills :p so I have to send him 10! hehe).
Kaffe for Syllable is on Kamidake, but that’s down just now. It doesn’t look like there was much porting done, it could be a straight compile. Anyway, it doesn’t have the native GUI interface that BeKaffe was trying to do.
Kamidake is back up. Here it is:
http://kamidake.nutus.com.ar/display_entry.php?id=83
But the download site seems to be gone.
There is a lot of things you can *not* do with kaffe right now. Like running Swing applications out of the box, for example. [1] You can’t do a lot with, say, java 2D at the moment, either, because no free java project has got around to implement those libraries yet.
On the other hand, there is lot of things you can do. YMMV.
Most of things you can not do *right now*, are due to the missing implementations of class library bits and pieces. That’s easy to fix: drop by, and I’ll give you a small task. right now, a lot of work concentrates on merging in chunks of the class library implementation from GNU Classpath, and that’s not too hard to do, even for Java novices. It’s just a lot of work 
For instance, kaffe 1.1.1 was the first VM, free or non-free to support ALSA as a javax.sound backend out of the box. Sun caught up with kaffe in 1.4.2
[1] But you can run a lot of swing apps written for java 1.2 using the swing 1.1.1 jar from Sun. Read FAQ/FAQ.awt in kaffe’s sources for more information.
I haven’t been very involved with Syllable lately I’m afraid. I have a pretty big todo list regarding it, including getting the documentation site up and running and various other things. However, I’ve been extremely busy with college (started my Applied Computer Sciences education) and I’ve been, well, lazy :o).