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Java Specification Request on Community Currencies
bernfast writes "I've submitted a Java Specification Request on complementary currencies to the Java Community Process. This specification will allow to implement arbitrary units of exchange as Java currencies. Examples are timedollars and other community currencies.
This JSR is still in need of an expert group and will probably not receive too much industry suppport, so any help from the open source community is welcome."
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "And it would help if there was native Java support for the most popular computing platforms" There is of course the JRE runtime which runs on just about any platform, and there are compilers available if you want to complie all the way down to native.
Get your history straight. Java IS a standard. Sun sued M$ to try to force them to make their Java implementation follow the Java standard rather than containing M$-specific changes. When all was said and done, M$ threw a tantrum and removed Java rather than complying with the standard.
Java IS available on all popular computing platforms -- including Windows, even if it not a crippled "native" M$ implementation.
A useful, standardized tool can develope if you simply write the library/class/whatever that is needed, make it very good, and then everyone starts using it. Standardization processes work best when they just rubber-stamp what everyone is doing anyway. Submit the JSR or whatever about the time you have a bureaucratic boss or client who wants something standardized before they will let you use it.
This sounds a lot like the Local Exchange Trading System, which has been around for a while. It allows communities to engage in economic activities without official currency if there is none available.
If developed for Java, you could easily use it from C# with IKVM.
"Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
What Java really needs to be taken seriously is a standard!
Who is not taking Java seriously? It's by far the most in-demand language in the IT industry.
And it would help if there was native Java support for the most popular computing platforms.
Why? The point of java is that it is not native. Its up to the VM implementor to handle the native code translation.
Instead Sun choose to sue Microsoft to get them to remove Java from their OS.
No. Sun sued Microsoft to get them to either remove or fix Microsoft's Java, which deliberately omitted parts of standard Java (such as RMI) and by default encouraged developers to produce Windows-only applications.
Decent Java is widespread on Windows as companies like Dell pre-install Sun's JRE.