Jikes News

3 November 1999 DS

Current version now 1.10

  • Fix some problems in the new Unicode support (which were all the fault of Dave Shields, and not the author, Vadim Zaliva).
  • Rename option +M= to +DR=. DR stands for "Dependence Report". This is to clear up confusion due to a poor choice of option name.
  • Fix a problem that caused Jikes to exit with a return code of zero even though semantic errors had been detected.
  • Update jikes.html to reflect recent option changes, including a description of the CSOoption. Update the "What is Jikes" section to include some introductory material written by Lou Grinzo for an article in developerWorks: Speeding up Java Development. We thank Lou for granting us permission to use this material.

27 October 1999 DS

I've just posted a new snapshot with some recent changes from Philippe to make Jikes more closely follow Sun's format for converting floating-point to string. Though an improvement, this code does not yet implement the full algorithm, as outlined by Steele, et.al., in POPL 1990.

25 October 1999 DS

Mandrake includes Jikes and JikesPG

Jikes and JikesPG are now included in Mandrake Linux. We don't know when they were added.

23 October 1999 DS

Mike Ernst and I were able to sort out the problems compiling his latest changes on Win/NT. The latest source passes the modena and jck tests, and the CVS snapshot has been updated.

19 October 1999 DS

Current version now 1.09

  • Re-enable CSO code (that I wrongly deleted in 1.08)

Latest CVS Snapshot now available

Pending resolution of problems with our open-source server, I will post a new snapshot whenever I make a change to the current master CVS tree at Research. I've added a new title line with links to the snapshot and to the CVSWeb and read-only mirror maintained at Sourcery.org.

Note that the CVSWeb mirror provided at this site is out-of-date. You need to use the one at Sourcery to view the latest sources.

Some more info on CSO

There's an interesting note just posted in the Tasks/CSO section.

18 October 1999 DS

Current version now 1.08

  • Re-enable incremental compilation.
  • Fix several bugs, though we lost track of just what was fixed. We'll try to update the bug database soon.
  • Explicit divide by zero, which used to result in an error, now results in a caution. This implements a suggestion of Neil Martin.
  • Plug a memory leak.
  • More code for Unicode enhancement from Vadim Zaliva.
  • Some fixes for Mike Ernst's enhancements.
  • A number of files have been renamed, in the jikes directory:
    • jikes.htm is now jikes.html
    • news.htm is now news.html
    • contrib.htm is now contrib.html
  • The "old" news from the IBM Research site has been archived as news_v1.html

Since 1.08 is now out, the pre108 pre-release has been withdrawn.

Thanks once more to Henner Zeller

During a recent visit to the Jikes CVS Repository Mirror maintained by Ken Coar, I noted mention of help he had received from Henner Zeller. Henner has made several contributions to the project, including writing the RPM spec file that was a great help packaging Jikes for Red Hat 6.1 (I only had to make some changes in the internal documentation). I mentioned this in a note to Ken, who wrote back: 

Yar, I'm putting Henner's cvsweb script in on the mirror in
place of the original I snarfed from Apache.  Henner has no
doubt seen lots of updates being made to the script; he was
kind enough to give me commit access to the repository
whence it lives.

Ken Coar

Open-source server status

Our open-source server is not yet fully up. We have been told everything should be in place by the end of this week. In the interim, we will continue to use the Research mail-lists and CVS tree (the one shadowed at Sourcery.org). We will continue to publish news and files for downloading here. Thanks for your patience.

13 October 1999 DS

Current version now 1.07

The current version is now 1.07. This version includes improved support for debugging (-g) and also adds some work-in-progress code for CSO (classpath search order) and enhanced Unicode support.

pre108: 1.08 Pre-release

We have started work on 1.08, and have just published the first 1.08 pre-release. We are now distributing three versions: stable, current, and "pre", where "pre" is mainly for use of the Core Team and interested parties as we try to continue work while our friends at developerWorks work to bring up our new server.

13 October 1999 DS

All the recent patches received from Philippe, Vadim and Joe Berkovitz are now in the 1.07 pre-release. The new option +CSO can be used to select Joe's suggested classpath search order.

The latest version passes the modena and jck11 tests.

We hope to make this the "current" version soon. However, Philippe has recently added a unified block stack; this is the sort of change than can cause very subtle errors. Though this version has passed our test set, we are putting it out in "pre-release" form for a couple of days, in the hopes we can weed out any show-stopping bugs before wider distribution.

So, if you are not faint of heart, and are willing to help us out, take the 107 pre-release for a spin.

12 October 1999 DS

Neil Martin joins Core Team

The Jikes Project Core Team is pleased to announce that Neil Martin has accepted our invitation to join the Core Team.

11 October 1999 DS

Patch pc1009a

pc1011a, combined with pc1009a, passes jck and modena. We are testing merge of pc and vz patches now.

11 October 1999 DS

Patch vz1011a

vz1011a, the latest Unicode patch set from Vadim, results in a version that passes the standard tests, except for tests failed due to pc1009a.

10 October 1999 DS

Patch vz1010a

vz1010a, the second Unicode-related patch set from Vadim has just been installed. It mostly contains patches I forgot to include when installing vz1009a.

09 October 1999 DS

Patch news

I have just included the latest work from Philippe and Vadim in both the Research and dw/OS CVS trees. I didn't include all of Vadim's code, as I didn't have time to check fully for possible conflicts. There were two commits, which I have tagged as follows:
  • pc1009a - Philippe's recent work on LocalVariableTable and the latest state of work on adding a single unified block statck. This code compiles, but is known to fail some tests.
  • vz1009a - some, but not all, of Vadim's recent work on extending Unicode support.
I have created Patches directory to track this work. I will post the patches sent in soon. For now I have put up two snapshots of the source:
  • jikes-pc1009a.tar.gz: tarball with 1.06 + Philippe's changes.
  • jikes-vz1009a.tar.gz: tarball with 1.06 + Philippe's changes + part of Vadim's changes

07 October 1999 DS

Stable version now 1.06

The stable version is now 1.06.

We hope to update the current version to 1.07 next week.

Red Hat 6.1 SRPM now available for download

A friend at Tivoli kindly sent me a copy of the SRPM Red Hat is shipping with 6.1. I have put a copy in the stable directory.

05 October 1999 DS

Problems compiling Jikes using egcs

Vadim and Brian Jones have reported problems using latest egcs 2.95.2 to compile Jikes 1.06. Brian writes:
Here is what I get when compiling after configuring with --enable-symbols. The compiler indicates a possible compiler problem which I have reported to bug-gcc@gnu.org this evening. This error does not occur if you do not use --enable-symbols. 
lyta:~/jikes/src$ make
c++ -funsigned-char -c -ansi -DTYPE_bool -DUNIX -DSTAT_POSIX \
  -I/home/cbj/jikes/src -DTEST -g /home/cbj/jikes/src/long.cpp
/home/cbj/jikes/src/long.cpp: In method \
    `class BaseLong BaseLong::operator <<(BaseLong)':
/home/cbj/jikes/src/long.cpp:112: Internal compiler error in \
  `instantiate_virtual_regs_1', \
  at function.c:3962
Please submit a full bug report.
make: *** [long.o] Error 1

Vadim writes:

I am still having compilation problem. I never used --enable-symbols. Here how it looks: 
c++ -funsigned-char -c -ansi -DTYPE_bool -DUNIX -DSTAT_POSIX
-I/export/home/lord/src/jikes/src -O2
/export/home/lord/src/jikes/src/error.cpp
/export/home/lord/src/jikes/src/error.cpp: In function `static void
SemanticError::PrintPRIVATE_METHOD_OVERRIDE_EXTERNALLY(SemanticError::ErrorInfo \
&, LexStream *, Control &)':
/export/home/lord/src/jikes/src/error.cpp:3634: Internal compiler error.
/export/home/lord/src/jikes/src/error.cpp:3634: Please submit a full bug report.
make: *** [error.o] Error 1

04 October 1999 DS

Vadim to lead Unicode enhancement effort

Vadim is leading an effort to provide support for Unicode "code pages". See Unicode task for further information.

03 October 1999 DS

Just came across a good intro for CVS newbies: SunWorld: CVS in the Scripting Landscape. Article contains good section on resources with lots of links.

02 October 1999 DS

We're open for business, sort of ...

We are waiting for Ken Coar to check out the Majordomo and CVS installations before opening them up (he has been on vacation, but recent e-mail indicates he is back and wading through the e-mail backlog). I'm able to publish new web content, though I understand others are having ftp, telnet problems. In any event, I'll try to keep things up to date until everything in place.

"Tasks" Section Opened

The Tasks Section is now open for business.

In brief, a task is a short-term subproject that requires more than e-mail to accomplish. A Core Team member can initiate a task at any time, and a task begins with a home page in the Tasks Section. We hope to soon be able to allow the easy initiation of new mail lists for a task.

Put another way, the Task Section is how Core Team members start "scratching" an "itch". They start a home page, and then try to attract an audience, or build a mini-community. At least that's the idea. We'll see if it works out.

Task 107pre: V1.07 Pre-Release

107pre is a new task to test the upcoming V1.07. This will consist almost entirely of fixes to repair known problems in the support of -g debugging option, which we think were mostly caused by generation of incomplete/incorrect LocalVariableTable entries. This was all my fault -- I did a crude first pass at this without appreciating what was needed. Philippe has spent most of the last week on this one; even if there are still some problems, based on past experience I'm confident the necessary machinery is now in place, and remaining bugs should be easily swatted.

The posted binaries failed 2 of the JCK tests, and Philippe will work on this over the weekend.

It's hard to test this change, as one must either fire up a debugger, or else dump class files and pore over the tables. We're hoping someone will help us out on this one...

Task IEEE754: Jikes and IEEE-754 format arithmetic

IEEE754 is new task for those with problems with Jikes and IEEE-754 format arithmetic, and those who want to help out in this area. No answers yet, just an initial note to get the ball rolling.

Task JCL: Jikes Classfile Lister

JCL is a new task intended to update our classfile lister and make it part of the main distribution. Hacker(s) wanted.

Vadim Zaliva now responsible for Unicode support

We have had a number of problem reports that Jikes should offer improved support for Unicode. Jikes as it stands passes all the Unicode-related tests, but it appears we should add additional support for "code pages".

Vadim Zaliva has assumed responsibility for Unicode-related issues.

27 September 1999 DS

Jitterbug bug-tracking/reporting system now available

Our new bug-tracking system (Jitterbug) is now open for business. See Jitterbug site for instructions on use. Please use Jikes Jitterbug to file new Jikes bug reports.

I'm not sure if Jitterbug can handle MIME-attachments (.zip, .tar.gz, etc.). If it doesn't, please e-mail such files directly to me and I will start a companion section in the Jikes Project pages to store these files.

I will move over the outstanding (Open) Jikes Problem Reports from the Jikes Discussion Database as time permits.

26 September 1999 DS

Jikes for RISC OS

Just added to the Ports section: Peter Naulls writes (26 Sep 1999):

The initial port is now available from Jikes for RISC OS This port still requires some work, but it does work :-)

24 September 1999 DS

Jikes to graduate from alphaWorks

Jikes will "graduate" from alphaWorks next Tuesday. The URL (alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/jikes) will stay live, but will refer to our new home. The discussion area will be kept, though no new postings will be allowed.

Current and stable

Speaking of alphaworks, we used to say that alphaworks provided "stable" Jikes, while Research provided "development" Jikes. Both versions will now be distributed from this site, using "current" instead of "development".

Jikes News now at developerWorks

The Jikes News file will now be published from our new home at developerWorks.

The previous edition of Jikes News, first published at our former site at IBM Research, is still available, and may be of interest to readers unfamiliar with Jikes who wish to read about developments from the release of the source for Jikes in December 1998 until our recent move to developerWorks: Research Jikes News (12/98-9/99)

Glenn Kasten joins Jikes Project Core Team

The Jikes Project Core Team is pleased to announce that Glenn Kasten has accepted our invitation to join the team.

Relocation Progress Report

I have copied over most of the content from the Research site: contrib, index, news and ports. Downloads for current and stable versions should be available, as well as new 'pub' subdirectory with master source in tar.gz format.

The Jikes Masthead

Finally, after waiting since December, I am able to display my daughter Jennifer's "handshake" Jikes Masthead. Oh happy day! Oh happy dad! My thanks to Dave Whitinger and Dwight Johnson, co-founders of LinuxToday (my favorite Linux news site) for running this masthead in the LinuxToday banner pool -- for free -- since December. Dave recently reported it had been shown over 1.1 million times, resulting in 4,000+ click-throughs to our Research site.