The OpenJDK project is about 95% of a complete Java implementation. That last 5% or so is what we've called 'encumbrances', code which we weren't able to open source.
The last two weeks has seen a lot of interesting movement to clearing the encumbrances. I don't know whether a comprehensive list of the encumbrances have been posted, unfortunately, but what's been cleared is significant. The following are what I found in a brief scan of the mailing list archives.
[OpenJDK 2D-Dev] Open Source rasterizer is an announcement from Jim Grahm of a new rasterizer, being called Pisces, that will replace the Ductus rasterizer currently being used. Pisces has known quality and performance problems, which the community can pitch in to help with.
In
[OpenJDK 2D-Dev] Remove warnings in sun.java2d Mark Reinhold mentioned the the "internal Mercurial cutover" will happen at the end of October (this month) and that shortly afterward there will be external Mercurial workspaces. Also Kelly O'Hair has posted an update on the Mercurial transition.
[security-dev 00016]: Crypto has been added to OpenJDK "We have just added the cryptographic code (aka JCE) to the OpenJDK source tree. This includes the framework (javax.crypto and friends), the SunJCE provider, and the crypto portions of the SunPKCS11 and SunMSCAPI providers."
status of 6532373 (xcb_xlib.c:50: xcb_xlib_unlock: Assertion 'c->xlib.lock' failed.) is not the clearing of an encumbrance, but it is significant nonetheless. The XCB team has redesigned Xlib and it has been included in X.org's latest release, which will then be included in future versions of various operating systems. AWT and certain other applications have been crashing with those Xlib implementations, which is forcing a rewrite these applications.
David Herron:
David Herron is a writer and software engineer focusing on the wise use of technology. He is especially interested in clean energy technologies like solar power, wind power, and electric cars. David worked for nearly 30 years in Silicon Valley on software ranging from electronic mail systems, to video streaming, to the Java programming language, and has published several books on Node.js programming and electric vehicles.
