Project organization

Draft 0.2 plan

The document lays out the feature set for the next major release of JNode designated release 0.2.

This plan is intended to guide the development towards our first major release. It is not a fixed plan that cannot be deviated from. Suggestions & remarks are always welcome and will be considered.

Release target

We want this release to be the first usable version of JNode where we can run real world Java programs on.
This means that we need a working filesystem, a stable virtual machine, a class library mostly compatible with JDK 1.1, a working TCP/IP implementation and way to install it on a PC. It is not expected to have a fully working GUI yet.

Additional features

To achieve the target outlined above, each team will have to add/complement a number of features. These features are listed below. The percentages specify finised work, so 100% means completed.

JNode-Core

• 100% - Dynamically (re)loadable plugins
• 10% - Plugin install, upgrade & uninstall framework
• 50% - Second level native code compiler target as good (native) code quality
• 100% - Security system
• 0% - Setup utility
• 80% - Implementation of java.lang package
• 80% - Implementation of java.math package
• 60% - Implementation of java.security package
• 90% - Implementation of java.util package
• 80% - Implementation of java.util.jar package
• 80% - Implementation of java.util.zip package

JNode-FS

• 80% - Virtual filesystem (in progress)
• 60% - Implementation of java.io package
• 90% - R/w ext2 implementation
• 20% - R/w fdisk services
• ? - Format services for ext2
• 95% - ATAPI driver
• 95% - CDROM (ISO9660) filesystem

JNode-GUI

• 0% - Textmode userinterface for use in installer

JNode-Net

• 25% - TCP/IP stack, client & server
• 75% - Implementation of java.net package

JNode-Shell

• 100% - Commands to modify the classpath
• 100% - Commands to run java code, both .class and .jar files from any location

Release milestones

Right now no date is set for this release. There will be intermediate releases reflecting the state of development on the 0.1.x series until the target is reached.

Looking towards the future; 0.3

The next major release after 0.2 should bring a graphical user interface, we should really consider using J2SDK 1.5 features like generic types and add numerous drivers for CDROMs, USB, Video cards.

Draft 0.3 plan

The document lays out the feature set for the next major release of JNode designated release 0.3.

This plan is intended to guide the development towards our second major release. It is not a fixed plan (as we have seen with the 0.2 release). Suggestions & remarks are always welcome and will be considered.

Release target

This release will improve the stability of the JNode operating system and enhance the usability.

Global enhancements

A major goal of this release is to reduce the memory footprint required by JNode. The VM will be enhanced to support this, and all parts of JNode will have to be more concerned about their memory usage.

JNode will become localizable and translations for some locales will be added.
Every new part of JNode will have to be localizable according to a set of rules that will be determined.
The one and only language for the source code of JNode is and will remain to be English.

The remainder of this page will describe the targets and enhancements of the various subprojects of JNode. The names between brackets in the enhancements sections are the names of the lead developer for that enhancement.

The enhancements are given a priority:

• Highest priority
• Second priority
• Lowest priority

Core: Virtual Machine & Operating system

The virtual machine will become more stable, reduce memory usage and will add support for Isolates (JSR 121). Furthermore it will enhance the J2SDK compatibility level.
The operating system will add support for power management and make enhancements for that in the driver framework.

An installer will be developed that is used to install JNode onto a PC system. This installer will put the essential structures/files on the harddisk of the PC.

A persistent storage mechanism for plugin preferences will be added.

Enhancements:

• Isolate support [ewout]
• Annotation support [ewout]
• Multi CPU support [ewout]
• Integrate MMTK garbage collector [ewout]
• Smart field alignment, to reduce the size of objects [ewout]
• Overall memory reduction [ewout]
• Power management support [ewout]
• API for halt, sleep & reboot of JNode [ewout]
• Installer [martin]
• Persistent storage for plugin preferences
• Access to detailed information about system information such as classes & their usage
• Fragmented plugin support [ewout]

Networking

The network layer will be enhanced to fully support wireless networks. Furthermore, the existing TCP/IP stack will be improved in terms of reliability, safety and speed.

Enhancements:

• Wireless network support [martin]
• Wireless netcard drivers [martin]
• TCP server side fixes [galatnm]
• EEPRO100 driver [galatnm]

File system

The filesystem layer will become more stable and will be refactored to make use to the NIO classes.
Support will be added for a virtual filesystem that allows links between filesystems.

A new "system" filesystem will be added that gives access to a distributed filesystem that contains the JNode system information. This system information is about plugins, kernels & preferences.

Enhancements:

• Change file system api's to use ByteBuffers [fabien]
• Update java.io to latest classpath version based on NIO classes [fabien]
• System filesystem [ewout]
• USB storage driver [galatnm]
• Extend support for EXT2 to EXT3
• Add write & format support to NTFS
• Generic block cache for block devices [fabien]

GUI

The existing GUI will be improved in terms of stability, Java2D support and speed.
The video driver interface may be adjusted to make better use of hardware acceleration.

A user friendly desktop environment will be developed or integrated.

Enhancements:

• Enhance java2D support
• Improve use of hardware acceleration
• Improve font rendering
• Improve Swing awt peers [levente]
• User friendly desktop environment [levente]

Shell

The shell will be extended with a graphical console, in order to display not ASCII characters.

Enhancements:

• Graphical console
• Add Isolate command invoker

Developer support

We want to make life of the JNode developer much easier. This will mean adding good documentation and also provide ways to develop JNode in JNode.

Enhancements:

• VM support for debugging
• Implement JDWP debugging protocol [levente]
• Support for a java compiler in JNode [levente]

TODO list

The document states some of the TODOs with regard to future releases of JNode. There is no particular date when the targets should be finished, but it should give you some hints, what you could look at :

• XYZ Filesystem: There are many other filesystems that could be added to JNode. Or existing readonly filesystems could be extended for write support. A list of possibilities includes: NFS, Samba, ssh fs, ftp write support, ntfs write support, ...
• Partitiontool: We need harddisk partitioning support. That includes a commandline version like fdisk but could also be extended for a graphical version. The GUI version can be written using charva or swing or both
• Grubinstaller: Some code to be able to install grub to the harddisk. That means, install stage1 into MBR, stage1.5 as needed and for both files the hidden data structures have to be updated. A "highlevel editor" for the menu.lst file would be fine, too.
• HTMLDemo: Classpath contains a little "webbrowser", it would be nice as a showcase for JNode. It's contained in examples.zip, but it has to be extended, because at the moment it's only usable for testing classpaths HTML renderer
• Device Drivers: Device Drivers are a very important part of an operating system. If you have a peace of hardware that isn't included in JNode yet, and you have some hardware/lowlevel skills you're welcome to add support for it. This includes either adding support for a new hardware for an existing API (e.g. network cards, graphic cards, HIDs,...) but also adding hardware that was not present in JNode before (e.g. Framegrabber (bttv,..), CD Writer,...).
• SWTswing: Port of SWTswing to JNode. This is needed to be able to run eclipse inside JNode. BTW, if that works, porting eclipse is the next TODO on the list
• JSR80: Interfacing the current JNode usb api to the javax.usb api as descriped in JSR80 API Specification.
• JNodeTools: Implement a tool to create and edit the plugin descriptors. Either as a eclipse tool or standalone app (so it can be used in JNode too). See also here
• JNode Commands: We need to expand and improve the suite of JNode utility commands that can be run from the command line. Rather than reinventing the wheel, JNode commands should aim to be compatible with commands defined in the relevant POSIX specification; i.e. IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition

Contact

Forums

JNode is discussed in several forums. These forums are now prefered above the Sourceforge mailinglists.

IRC

You can also use the #JNode.org at irc.oftc.net IRC channel.

GIT commits

Follow us on GitHub to track all code changes.

Twitter

Use #JNode to talk about JNode on twitter.

Or else

For all other questions, suggestion and remarks, please contact the project admins: Ewout Prangsma (aka epr), Levente Santha (aka lsantha).

Release procedure

This document describes what is needed to make and publish a new release of JNode.

Preparation

1. Start with a clean copy of the SVN trunk (no extra files, no missing files)
2. Update all patches to be included in the release
3. If the checked-in copy of "builder/lib/jnode-configure-dist.jar" is older than any of the source code for the tool (in "builder/src/configure"), run the following:
   

   $ cp all/build/descriptors/jnode-configure.jar \
        builder/lib/jnode-configure-dist.jar
   $ svn commit builder/lib/jnode-configure-dist.jar
   

4. Set the new version number in the "jnode-ver" property in build.xml
5. Execute "build clean"
6. Execute "build" and verify the build
7. Boot and test the system from the network
8. Boot and test the system in VMWare
9. Execute "build cd-x86"
10. Boot and test the system from the CDROM
11. Boot and test the system from the CDROM DHCP target

Uploading

1. Execute "ant -f all\build.xml upload"
2. Create release in SF File Release system
3. Mark release hidden
4. Write release notes and changelog
5. Attach jnode-{version}.iso.gz to release
6. Set attributes to "i386", "gz"
7. Attach jnodesources-{version}.tar.gz to release
8. Set attributes to "Platform independent", "gz"
9. Verify the upload by downloading the uploaded files
10. Mark release active

Website adjustments

1. Add new changelog book page "from {previous-version} to {version}", copy entries from changelog "from {previous-version} to current SVN version"
2. Empty changelog "from {previous-version} to current SVN version"
3. Create static page "Release {version}", with Download term and mark or change the "Website" option from "<none>" to "Downloads"

SVN actions

1. Copy the entire trunk to a branch "jnode_x_y_z" where x, y, z is the version number
2. Set the next development version number (x.y.(z+1)-dev) in the "jnode-ver" property in build.xml and check that in