Re: lang/openjdk-bin for platforms other than amd64 NetBSD or Linux?

[Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost>]

"J. Lewis Muir" <jlmuir%imca-cat.org@localhost> writes:

>> I don't see how it follows that you want openjdk-bin, but I'm guessing
>> that either:
>>   - you need 21 not 17, and openjdk21 doesn't build on some platforms.
>
> Yes, this one.  Sorry I wasn't too clear on that.  There's no
> lang/openjdk21 binary package for macOS arm64 from MNX.  It's marked
> with a build status of "prefailed" at
>
>   https://releng.netbsd.org/bulktracker/pkg/46287274

This is why it's not a good idea to write programs in Java :-)

> OK, thanks for the clarification on that.  I was aware that this
> fallback mechanism existed, but I wasn't aware that you generally do not
> encode a dependency on foo-bin.

mk/java-vm.mk should be enlightening.

>> > I'm also aware of lang/openjdk21, but it has a big scary warning in
>> > DESCR that says the following:
>> >
>> >   This package is NOT certified to be compatible with any Java standard.
>> >   Use at own risk.
>> 
>> Well, nothing is certified in pkgsrc, in general.  I wouldn't take that
>> too seriously, but rather ask "Has anyone found that the openjdk21
>> package does the wrong thing?"
>
> Well, if the maintainer thinks it should be fine, then I'd say the
> warning should just be removed, and then I wouldn't have reason to
> doubt the package in the first place and ask that question.  It seems
> to me that the warning will scare people away and make them not use
> it.  I mean, are there similar warnings for other pkgsrc language
> builds like Python, Ruby, Rust, Go, or whatever?  Or maybe those
> projects don't have an equivalent thing (i.e., a Technology
> Compatibility Kit)?  They probably all have a test suite, though.  But
> I doubt the DESCR file for any of them has anything about whether the
> test suite passes or not.  If that's the case, then it seems like Java
> shouldn't be treated any differently than those.  I don't know
> anything about lang/openjdk21 other than that the Makefile looks
> somewhat complex.  And when I see a warning like that but don't see a
> similar warning for other languages, it makes we wonder what's wrong
> with it.

What's wrong is the culture of Java.

I see the presence of such a warning not as a problem in the package but
a clue that there are problems in Java the ecosystem.  My dim memory is
that passing TCK is sufficiently burdensome, somehow, that it's
essentially not possible for open source projects.   I also have a dim
memory of some demands to label jdks as not having passed TCK.   But I
tend to disregard such things as noise.

Maybe you can download the TCK (maybe it's available under an open
source license), type 'make test', and see how that goes?  But
serioulsy, my guess is you won't get very far.