HAAGE & PARTNER Computer

STATUS OF THE MERAPI PROJECT

Ever since the existence of our Java project, MERAPI, became known to the public (and some people found out VERY quickly--you know who you are!) it has generated a great amount of interest, and we receive many inquiries into the progress it is making. There have been several delays and this especially has, naturally, caused some concern with Amiga users interested in this product. For all of you, here's what we can tell you about how things are going.

First things first, the project has NOT been cancelled. We fully intend to offer you a high-quality, innovative Java implementation for the Amiga. It must be said however that we have greatly underestimated the amount of work involved in achieving this goal, the product is not yet ready for beta testing, and more work still lies ahead.

For the software industry as a whole, it can be said that this is a common but unfortunate set of circumstances. In this case however, it was in one way a good thing. Had we realized how long this work would take, we might never have started it--and we are still happy that we did! So far the challenge of writing a JIT compiler with a uniquely Amiga flavour has not proven too daunting or complex, and we are limited more by time and resources, both on our side and with the external parties involved, than we are by the implications of its fairly unique design. The program as it stands now properly translates most Java bytecode into native machine code. It loads, links, and verifies class files for correctness and security (in fact this part has already uncovered a great deal of bugs in Sun's own JDK).
It has GUI elements very similar to the Amiga's native look and feel, complete with an Amiga-like menu system (a replacement was needed because of certain limitations imposed on standard Amiga menus).

The flip side of the coin, of course, is relatively slow progress. Consequentially, we have made the following decisions. First, as experience has shown that it is next to impossible to set meaningful deadlines under these circumstances, we can no longer publish the expected date of release before licensing details have been hammered out and Merapi is definitely going to be ready. Second, to avoid at least some of the delay before you will have access to the product, we plan for an incremental release. This means that the first versions of the Merapi JVM may not incorporate all of the advanced functionality of the standard Java libraries that many users do not need in day-to-day usage, or which serve a cosmetic rather than a functional purpose.

These features will then be added in later versions, leaving us more time to concentrate on quality and stability of the first versions. In the final analysis, features can be easily retrofitted to an existing program; quality cannot. We trust that you, as Amiga users, share this view of software development and will understand that we take this position.

Thank you for your time,

Jeroen T. Vermeulen

As said before, development is going on fine and we will provide you with more status reports soon.

© 1998 HAAGE & PARTNER Computer - http://www.haage-partner.com

	Ever since the existence of our Java project, MERAPI, became known to the public (and some people found out VERY quickly--you know who you are!) it has generated a great amount of interest, and we receive many inquiries into the progress it is making. There have been several delays and this especially has, naturally, caused some concern with Amiga users interested in this product. For all of you, here's what we can tell you about how things are going. First things first, the project has NOT been cancelled. We fully intend to offer you a high-quality, innovative Java implementation for the Amiga. It must be said however that we have greatly underestimated the amount of work involved in achieving this goal, the product is not yet ready for beta testing, and more work still lies ahead. For the software industry as a whole, it can be said that this is a common but unfortunate set of circumstances. In this case however, it was in one way a good thing. Had we realized how long this work would take, we might never have started it--and we are still happy that we did! So far the challenge of writing a JIT compiler with a uniquely Amiga flavour has not proven too daunting or complex, and we are limited more by time and resources, both on our side and with the external parties involved, than we are by the implications of its fairly unique design. The program as it stands now properly translates most Java bytecode into native machine code. It loads, links, and verifies class files for correctness and security (in fact this part has already uncovered a great deal of bugs in Sun's own JDK). It has GUI elements very similar to the Amiga's native look and feel, complete with an Amiga-like menu system (a replacement was needed because of certain limitations imposed on standard Amiga menus). The flip side of the coin, of course, is relatively slow progress. Consequentially, we have made the following decisions. First, as experience has shown that it is next to impossible to set meaningful deadlines under these circumstances, we can no longer publish the expected date of release before licensing details have been hammered out and Merapi is definitely going to be ready. Second, to avoid at least some of the delay before you will have access to the product, we plan for an incremental release. This means that the first versions of the Merapi JVM may not incorporate all of the advanced functionality of the standard Java libraries that many users do not need in day-to-day usage, or which serve a cosmetic rather than a functional purpose. These features will then be added in later versions, leaving us more time to concentrate on quality and stability of the first versions. In the final analysis, features can be easily retrofitted to an existing program; quality cannot. We trust that you, as Amiga users, share this view of software development and will understand that we take this position. Thank you for your time, Jeroen T. Vermeulen

	*As said before, development is going on fine and we will provide you with more status reports soon.*