The flap was about totally submitting control of the Java spec to an official international committee (ISO maybe? Something like that anyway). The new deal lets Sun keep a (hopefully) benevolent dictatorship over the process. What do you mean hopefully? Its never a good idea to let any company maintain a dictatorship over a technology that will be broadly used. Part of the reason C++ is as popular as it is - is because its a standardized language. Without open discussion and input from multiple parties - you would have one entity guiding the language in any direction they feel - and this direction is usually towards facilitating the sale and development of their own products. That's why standard bodies exist! In this particular case, i find it amusing that Sun would like Java to become a standard but is very cautious to do so out of fear that they would lose their current autocratic control. Although i don't deny that some standards exist in the control of a private/corporate party, the majority (and popular) of standards are the result of open forums and standardization bodies.
One issue with an ISO type committee is that they tend to be very slow - how often has the C++ spec been updated? Twice? This encourages compiler vendors to come up with proprietary extensions to meet developers' needs. Java is currently moving far faster than an ISO committee could possibly handle I disagree here. While it is true that you have a lot of political infighting that occurs in standards committies (as each company involved tries to manipulate (or work in some proprietary royalty oriented IP) the standard to its own advantage) - and as a result you have a lot of blocking that occurs because no one agrees, i think the reason (in the case of) the c++ spec hasn't been updated as often as you claim (i have no knowledge of how often its been updated) is probably because there really isn't anything that needs changed. How long has it been around now?... [since the early 80's?]
The flap was about totally submitting control of the Java spec to an official international committee (ISO maybe? Something like that anyway). The new deal lets Sun keep a (hopefully) benevolent dictatorship over the process. What do you mean hopefully? Its never a good idea to let any company maintain a dictatorship over a technology that will be broadly used. Part of the reason C++ is as popular as it is - is because its a standardized language. Without open discussion and input from multiple parties - you would have one entity guiding the language in any direction they feel - and this direction is usually towards facilitating the sale and development of their own products. That's why standard bodies exist! In this particular case, i find it amusing that Sun would like Java to become a standard but is very cautious to do so out of fear that they would lose their current autocratic control. Although i don't deny that some standards exist in the control of a private/corporate party, the majority (and popular) of standards are the result of open forums and standardization bodies. One issue with an ISO type committee is that they tend to be very slow - how often has the C++ spec been updated? Twice? This encourages compiler vendors to come up with proprietary extensions to meet developers' needs. Java is currently moving far faster than an ISO committee could possibly handle I disagree here. While it is true that you have a lot of political infighting that occurs in standards committies (as each company involved tries to manipulate (or work in some proprietary royalty oriented IP) the standard to its own advantage) - and as a result you have a lot of blocking that occurs because no one agrees, i think the reason (in the case of) the c++ spec hasn't been updated as often as you claim (i have no knowledge of how often its been updated) is probably because there really isn't anything that needs changed. How long has it been around now?... [since the early 80's?]
did you notice that the first arrow on the left hand side of the shield is smaller than the other 3? the box is in the upper right hand corner (as opposed to left) as well. this may have something to do with how its read - some of the text may be bidirectional? Also, wonder if how many points are on the star and direction of the band/crest (ul ~ lr) has anything to do with it?
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The flap was about totally submitting control of the Java spec to an official international committee (ISO maybe? Something like that anyway). The new deal lets Sun keep a (hopefully) benevolent dictatorship over the process.
... [since the early 80's?]
What do you mean hopefully? Its never a good idea to let any company maintain a dictatorship over a technology that will be broadly used. Part of the reason C++ is as popular as it is - is because its a standardized language. Without open discussion and input from multiple parties - you would have one entity guiding the language in any direction they feel - and this direction is usually towards facilitating the sale and development of their own products. That's why standard bodies exist! In this particular case, i find it amusing that Sun would like Java to become a standard but is very cautious to do so out of fear that they would lose their current autocratic control. Although i don't deny that some standards exist in the control of a private/corporate party, the majority (and popular) of standards are the result of open forums and standardization bodies.
One issue with an ISO type committee is that they tend to be very slow - how often has the C++ spec been updated? Twice? This encourages compiler vendors to come up with proprietary extensions to meet developers' needs. Java is currently moving far faster than an ISO committee could possibly handle
I disagree here. While it is true that you have a lot of political infighting that occurs in standards committies (as each company involved tries to manipulate (or work in some proprietary royalty oriented IP) the standard to its own advantage) - and as a result you have a lot of blocking that occurs because no one agrees, i think the reason (in the case of) the c++ spec hasn't been updated as often as you claim (i have no knowledge of how often its been updated) is probably because there really isn't anything that needs changed. How long has it been around now?
The flap was about totally submitting control of the Java spec to an official international committee (ISO maybe? Something like that anyway). The new deal lets Sun keep a (hopefully) benevolent dictatorship over the process. What do you mean hopefully? Its never a good idea to let any company maintain a dictatorship over a technology that will be broadly used. Part of the reason C++ is as popular as it is - is because its a standardized language. Without open discussion and input from multiple parties - you would have one entity guiding the language in any direction they feel - and this direction is usually towards facilitating the sale and development of their own products. That's why standard bodies exist! In this particular case, i find it amusing that Sun would like Java to become a standard but is very cautious to do so out of fear that they would lose their current autocratic control. Although i don't deny that some standards exist in the control of a private/corporate party, the majority (and popular) of standards are the result of open forums and standardization bodies. One issue with an ISO type committee is that they tend to be very slow - how often has the C++ spec been updated? Twice? This encourages compiler vendors to come up with proprietary extensions to meet developers' needs. Java is currently moving far faster than an ISO committee could possibly handle I disagree here. While it is true that you have a lot of political infighting that occurs in standards committies (as each company involved tries to manipulate (or work in some proprietary royalty oriented IP) the standard to its own advantage) - and as a result you have a lot of blocking that occurs because no one agrees, i think the reason (in the case of) the c++ spec hasn't been updated as often as you claim (i have no knowledge of how often its been updated) is probably because there really isn't anything that needs changed. How long has it been around now? ... [since the early 80's?]
did you notice that the first arrow on the left hand side of the shield is smaller than the other 3? the box is in the upper right hand corner (as opposed to left) as well. this may have something to do with how its read - some of the text may be bidirectional? Also, wonder if how many points are on the star and direction of the band/crest (ul ~ lr) has anything to do with it?