[Fwd: [ANNOUNCE] JOS Project 1998 Q1 Report]

[Paul Prescod]

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Perhaps this is of interest, just to see how others are approaching
similar projects.
-- 
 Paul Prescod  - http://itrc.uwaterloo.ca/~papresco

"Perpetually obsolescing and thus losing all data and programs every 10
years (the current pattern) is no way to run an information economy or
a civilization." - Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog
http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/10124.html
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From: "Markus Peter" <warpi@spin.de>
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Subject: [ANNOUNCE] JOS Project 1998 Q1 Report
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The JOS Project (tm) 1998 First Quarter Status Report

TABLE OF CONTENTS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  * Overview
  * Major Items
  * Project Summaries
  * 1Q 1998 Meeting Minutes
  * Contribution Summary
  * Second Quarter Goals

OVERVIEW
~~~~~~~~

The JOS Project(tm) is a collaborative undertaking by an
international group of programmers and enthusiasts aimed at
the creation of a free and open Java(tm) based operating system.

The end product will be an operating system that will run
100% Java(tm) applications on a Intel 386/486 class machine
with 8MB memory and a 60 MB hard drive.  JOS intends to
support built-in networking, remote administration,
multi-user support, and other world class operating system
features.  The stretch goal includes multiple VM support to
allow seamless integration of future operating system ideals
such as distributed computing and orthogonal persistence.
Members of the design team are also looking into CORBA
support for inter-vm and distributed communication for
foreign system compatibility.

The JOS Project had a respectable first quarter growth rate
with over 2000 hours donated by experienced architects and
programmers.  This was double the 1997 fourth quarter
contribution.  Project hours were spent focusing on
infrastructure, analysis, design and implementation.

JOS is a ground floor opportunity for dedicated, creative
individuals interested in impacting the software world.


MAJOR ITEMS
~~~~~~~~~~~

Infrastructure:

The Wiki has been refined to provide control and support for
related industry groups interested in joint collaboration
and development.  The Wiki has tripled in size and now
contains over 700 pages of discussions relating but not
limited to analysis, design, specifications, and references.

A chat server was added to the web site for real time
conferences and group meetings.

In order to centrally manage JOS code a source server has
been put into production.

These combined infrastructure investments allow JOS the
capability of hosting a scalable, highly productive
distributed development team.


Operating System Kernel:

The JOS Project consented on using the RTEMS real-time
executive kernel as a working seed to implement the
operating system around.  RTEMS provides immediate access to
i386, PowerPC, 68k, and other processor architectures.  This
allows JOS to scale from small embedded systems to large
multi-user installations.

Notes:

RTEMS is a free-software kernel developed and maintained by
OAR Corporation (www.oarcorp.com).


PROJECT SUMMARIES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A) FILE SYSTEM

A working Pure Java File System has been developed:
  * Pluggable File System architecture (VFAT is here, ext2fs in preparation)
  * GUI test environment (JosScout)
  * Native disk drivers are in preparation

B) DRIVER INTERFACE

We have started to develop a driver interface to allow for Java base drivers.

C) KERNEL

We have a bootable program which says "Welcome to JOS".  We
also have a minimal 100K program, built on top of RTEMS,
which says "Hello World".  These two building blocks provide
the seed for our kernel.

D) BROWSER

We are building a Java WWW Browser (JoZilla) that will
support Java, CORBA IIOP via JacORB, and ECMAScript.

E) XML FRAMEWORK

The XAS group will provide XML parsing, Object Tree
Factories, and Java Bean Application Frameworks.  The XML
Framework will provide an infrastructure for XML based
applications.


F) JOS APPLICATIONS AND UTILITIES

We are working on applications and system utilities such as
a plain text editor, system resource monitoring utility,
internationalization resource utility, user based
customization registry, and many other key user level
programs that will make JOS a success.


G) YOUR PROJECT GOES HERE

We are always open for more project ideas and a brilliant
person like yourself to make it happen.


1Q 1998 MEETING MINUTES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

JFA

JOS applauds the JavaLobby's effort to advance
and support free software.

RTEMS

Kaffe is discussed briefly.  It needs serious hacking before
it will be useful to us.  Japhar is mentioned, but none
present seem to know much about it.  Japhar discussion
should start on the kernel list.

KERNEL/GENERAL

The idea of hacking Linux to provide a development platform
was explored.  This gives us a working platform to build off
of now, so non kernel work can get started.  Also discussed
is an RTEMS based development platform, with Linux drivers.
JosDevelopmentPlatform is started to discuss such things.
It looks like JOS will be using the RTEMS kernel.

JVM

There is an existing port of Kaffe to RTEMS, but it needs
some work still.  A Java Virtual Machine Group will be formed.


CONTRIBUTERS FOR 1Q 1998
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name                      Hours  Comments
------------------------  -----  ---------------------------------------------
Stephan Borg              350    Admin, Application Utility, Plain Text Editor
Clark Evans               240    Admin, Kernel
*Thomas Winzig            240    Source Server
*Markus Peter             240    Admin, Kernel
Robert Fitzsimons         200    Loaders, managers, drivers, loader
*Ray Shpeley              180    Kernel
Stefan Reich              125    FileSystem, API, General Discussion
*Jeroen C. van Gelderen   120    Kernel, Security
Dmitri Kondratiev         100    XML Framework, Kernel
Brad Neuberg              70     Admin, XML Framework
Omega Baphomet            60     JoZilla, Registry
*Chris Bergstresser       60     Admin, Shell
*Pehr Anderson            60     Kernel, Networks
*Maxim Kizub              60     Kernel
*John D. DeCuir           60     Discussion
Bill Rehm                 50     Garbage Collection, VM design
*Lee Daniel Crocker       30     Discussion
*Augusto Sellhorn         30     Discussion
*Ian Davis                30     VM Design
*Ben Knowles              20     Licensing, Admin
Linus Larsson             20     Open Doc, DocSet, XML
Kristopher Foster         12     HTTP,CSI, Command Line Utilities
Matthew Caswell           10     Admin,Multi-Process emulator
1Q 1998 APPX. TOTAL     2367 HOURS

* Times not reported, Clark Evans estimated.

CONTRIBUTERS FOR 4Q 1997
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill Rehm , Chris Bergstresser , Clark Evans , Dmitri
Kondratiev , Ian Davis , Joubin , Lee Daniel Crocker ,
Markus Peter , Maxim Kizub , Ray Shpeley , Stephan Borg ,
Stefan Reich , Thomas Winzig , Tim Taylor
4Q 1997 APPX. TOTAL     1000 HOURS


SECOND QUARTER GOALS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

JVM - We would like a minimal Java Virtual Machine to run on
top of RTEMS.  We expect that it will support Java Byte
Codes and some of the java.lang.* package.

Administrative - We would like to formalize our license and
create our legal organizational structure.   Adding revision
control to the source server and allowing image uploads
to the Wiki web are also high priority items.

Applications - More applications are on the way.

--
Clark Evans ( clark.evans@jos.org ) and
Markus Peter ( warpi@jos.org )




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