Slashdot Mirror
Sun Announces Java Executive Committee Members
Sun Microsystems today announced the members of their Executive Committee which will oversee the Java Community Process (JCP) program, the community-based process for developing Java technology specifications, reference implementations and associated compatibility test suites. These ECs will serve in full capacity in guiding the JCP program until the first general EC election. Of particular note is the inclusion of various Open Source leaders, including Caldera and The Apache Software Foundation.
We live on a planet that is, as planets often are, shaped roughly as a round ball-like thingy. Not only that, but it tends to whirl around, giving us our praised days and nights. Think about it: I live in Eastern European Timezone. I wake up like, what, seven long hours before U.S. citizens. Not to mention Indian
We from the other side of the globe would very much like to see news posted before we have to get to sleep
I think, therefore thoughts exist. Ego is just an impression.
Sun walked away from the ISO several months ago because the ISO would not let them retain complete control, including imposing a licensing scheme, on the proposed ISO Java Standard. Sun merely did not want Java established as a standard, but they wanted to supercede the ISO when it came to formulating, monitoring, and enforcing the standard. This would have included huge licensing fees for anyone who used the ``standard''. It was little more than an attempt to get the ISO to become the licensing enforcement arm of Sun. When the ISO said no, Sun walked away.
So they tried to make an end run around the ISO through the ECMA (until Sun realized that Microsoft was and ECMA member), and now they are apparently forming an Executive Committee, (comprised primarily of corporations, as opposed to developers). If this is supposed to be the Java community-based Process program, where are the real members of the community, the developers!
Mr. McNealy, you cannot have your cake, and eat it too! Either Java is a copyrighted product, which you are free to license to third parties, or it is a standard. NOT BOTH! This is nothing more than another uncommitted publicity stunt by Sun that will accomplish nothing. Java will remain without standardization.
| Ceci n'est pas une pipe.
Sun has drawn a lot of fire for its stance towards open source. But I believe they have a (valid) reason for what they do. Remember Joy was one of the original BSD guys. He understands free software. While Java is very powerful and used in many places for many things, it is still in the "proving grounds" stage of its development to many (witness a new version every 8 months or so). It is not ready to be decentralized and exposed to the world at large yet. There are still some rather big sharks out there that would like nothing more than to take all of Sun's work (which has been for the most part just "given away" - specs, implementations, documentation, etc.) and run with it...branch it, assimilate it, extinguish it. Java is not ready for the possibility of being branched into many flavors. For a while more I think Sun is correct in keeping Java under central control while it's in its nascent stage. I don't know much about ISO, but couldn't ISO decide that we just needed /this/ little feature or /that/ little feature in Java? There are major features currently in development - like genericity/parameterized types. These things haven't crystallized yet. Sun already has published specs which are enough (AFAIK) to make your own implementation, and nobody is stopping you. Sun is forming this committee from companies it trusts and has worked with closely. I don't see what's wrong with that. I think sometimes we doth protest too much.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?