[fedora-java] Introduction prior GSOC

[Vipul Amler]

Hi all,

I am Vipul A. M. a Final Year Computer Science Student.
I am interested to work on Java API/ABI changes checker proposed by
Stanislav Ochotnický
over here [1].

I have been having discussions with him for the past 1-2 weeks and getting
to know more about the Java Packaging
System needs on Fedora{and other, need of all platforms as he says}, and
the various pathways for [1]

Till now, I have been trying to understand more how and where the need for
[1] is
as also the available solutions, and pathways there could be. Me learning
from Java API Compliance Checker [2] and others
our discussions have come down to,

* Developing a Java based framework for matching results for single jar to
that of [1]
* Work on build environment to analyse the breakage at CLASSPATH and other
relevant levels
* Create a comparison based large database for analyzing or suggesting how
to proceed ahead.
* Generate outputs of comparison{in different forms json,xml,etc} that
could be further parsed for other purposes
* Generate Web-View of the same

Some of the use-cases suggested for these are as below

Quoting Stanislav

"
I envision following use cases:
1. packagers will run this on new release of upstream jar, and old
release of upstream jar, compare results and decide how to proceed

2. generate a big database of comparison data for a lot of different
versions of various projects/jars where developers can go and see
the stuff without actually running the tool themselves

3. [possibly in the far future] runs by automatic quality control
tools such as AutoQA that would prevent an update to a package in a
released version of distribution that would break compatibility.
"

So,

what I would try and target more in {the very small 3 months of} GSoC ,is
to first develop a base solution that does
proper analysis and breakage detection at singular unit of jar/build
environment.
After a good base try and handle as many features suggested above, in
future.

I would like hear your thoughts/criticisms, to help me identify any other
approaches.

Cheers

[1]
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Summer_coding_ideas_for_2012#Java_API.2FABI_changes_checker
[2] http://ispras.linuxbase.org/index.php/Java_API_Compliance_Checker

Vipul A.M.
+91-8149-204995
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