Subject: Add java-xalan-interp

From: Frank Pursel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2022 17:57:01 -0700

>  I was able to apply this patch on current master
>  ec6122250de7c83a7e77054584a34767b11337db ... and successfully build
>  java-xalan-interp!
>  
>  But this appears to add java-xalan-interp, but the subject is "Add
>  java-xalan".

Back in 2018 people tried to add java-xalan but it never happened
because the dependencies were never factored out and the author of the
original effort apparently lost interest.

I submitted an original patch to build an alternate, interpreted,
version of xalan that avoided use of the unbootstrappable dependencies
that were the earlier problem.  Maxime prompted significant improvements
to this patch to obtain the final version which you built but I thought
it should have a name to distinguish it from the most common version
which we did not build.  The version this patch builds is an
'interpreted' version so I labelled it java-xalan-interp.  Presumably,
in a future where java-cup could be bootstrapped (currently it cannot be
bootstrapped and so is excluded from guix and unused in this build of
java-xalan-interp) we might eventually be able to provide java-xalan and
comparisons might be made with java-xalan-interp.

>  I'm not confident in reviewing the whole patch series, and not terribly
>  savvy with guile or java ...
>  
>  The patches started in 2018, are some of the earlier patches applied?
>  Are there other patches that still need applying? Or can they be
>  dropped?

They can be dropped because they were in the depricated style as well as
depended on binary blobs from other sources that are not in guix and
have not yet proven to be bootstrappable in guix.

>  
>  Do you have a summary of the discussion around licensing and other
>  issues? Makes me a bit nervous to apply patches as the current status is
>  not totally clear to me.
>

Summarizing -- the details are all above -- Maxime Devos identified some
code from other projects included in the xalan source bundle which was
of a suspicious nature.  The patch here deletes this code and only
creates an older version of xalan that is interpreted rather than
compiled with the unbuildable compiler dependency.  Maxime conducted a
nearly line by line scrutiny of all the code and found two reference to
JDK1.0 sources that he asked about upstream.  Apache responded that the
identified code was depricated by the JDK and that they had continued to
maintain it.  He also found a drawing that was part of the testing code
for which we added correct acknowledgement in the current package.  I
believe all these curiosities have been appropriately considered.  No
further action is either needed or anticipated.  

>  If these aren't the first generation patches in the series, maybe
>  re-send the patches that still need applying as a [PATCH v2] (or v3?
>  v4?) in the subject of each patch?

The patch you built is the only one needed to build the entire
java-xalan-interp library.  The earlier versions are no longer relevant.

>  With a summary clarifying the licensing and which exact patches still
>  need applying, that would make it a lot easier to review!
>
>  
>  Thanks for contributing to guix, and hanging onto patience with the
>  process!
>  
>  
>  live well,
>    vagrant

Hoping that guix will soon be able to add this complete xalan
implementation to guix in the near future.

Regards,
Frank Pursel