jdk on alpha

[Nate Williams]

> > > What are the outstanding issues?
> > > 
> > > I've read on http://kjkoster.org/java/content/newarch.jsp that
> > > invokeNative_alpha.s needs to be done.
> > > Is this still true?
> > 
> > Yes.
> 
> OK - that needs to be done.
> 
> > > What is the best jdk version to start with?
> > 
> > The only one available, which is the one released by DEC (prior to being
> > Compaq, which happened prior to HPC) for Linux.
> > 
> > > I've also read on that page that we need a working jdk to bootstrap
> > > with an example on how to do this with help from another machine.
> > 
> > No need, since the Linux native one works.
> 
> Is it recent enough to build jdk14?

Ahh, nope.

> Otherwise I would prefer to go the i386 cross build way.
> It's problematic in respect to ports, but from what I've heard
> installaing the DEC binary is also manual work.

Last I remember it was pretty easy.  However, it's an older JDK, so yes,
there will be issue.

> > > Are there any ideas on how to handle this from ports?
> > > E.g. can we distribute a native bootstrap jdk binary like it's done
> > > for modula?
> > 
> > No.  However, in my opinion using the JVM, it's really a non-issue,
> 
> Bad news, but I'd already expected this.
> 
> > unless you're doing it for research purposes.  My 486/66 box with 16MB
> > of memory blows the doors off my 500Mhz Alpha with 256MB of memory.
> > Java on the alpha is slow, piggy, and basically useless.
> 
> Well - I can't argue on that, but having at least a runable java is
> required today in many cases - even in simple one such as web browsing.

Again, it's *SO SLOW* as to be complete unusable.  Again, my 486/66
blows the doors off of the Alpha.  Rendering a page on an Alpha using
Java is simply way too slow and resource hungry.



Nate