[Scope-dev] Collaboration [1]

[Christian H. <chr...@tu...>]

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: Re: [jos-general] Re: [jdistro-devel] Where do we go ?
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2003 14:46:49 -0400
From: Gilbert Carl Herschberger II <gc...@mi...>
To: Christian Heller <chr...@tu...>

It is rare and precious to find someone capable of bringing people
together. Are you that person? I think so. Many of us think we have
different goals, and need to travel in different directions...

And yet, it seems that our goals are not so different after all. Because of
the JOS Project, our members have ended up experimenting with many
different aspects of Java technologies--beyond what makes an OS--to find
out what people might expect from Java technology.

Here is how it might be possible to unite these development projects into a
united development platform: form a brand new project on sourceforge.net
with an explicit goal to unite many other projects. Java technology is
wonderful. It especially shines in the area of integration. But somebody
has to actually do the work on putting the results of these projects
together into something people can use.

A new project should be focused on integration and feedback. We need to
explain to the specialists how they can make their project more compatible
with what other people are doing.

Politically and pragmatically, it is better to build a brand new project.
Anyone interested in integration can join. Those who simply want to develop
isolated applications that happen to be written in Java do not have to
join. It sounds like there is momentum here. Those of us who want to
discuss integration should join together in a mailing list that is focused
on integration. (You should not be required to post messages to multiple
mailing lists, right?)

I have followed the JOS Project from the beginning. I could contribute more
information about what we have attempted, both what has been a success and
what has been a failure. We can help enable Java programmers to build
applications that work together. How do we make all of it work together? If
we can answer that, we can all benefit.

What is the name of the new project? and its mailing list? How about
something that plays on where we come from? Java United Application Network
(JUAN). Or, Open Common API For Existance (OpenCAFE).

No, really. There is a common API for per-sistance, but no such support for
existance. Your Java program must exist within a Java-enabled environment
before it can do something useful. In my experience, the most difficult
part of Java technology has been the actual deployment of a finished
application. How many ways are there to deploy a Java class? Many. And
unfortunately, they have little in common. Why can't you create a Java
program that can run as a EJB, applet, application and servlet? Because the
EJB, applet, application and servlet APIs have little or nothing in common.

There are jars, wars, ears. But I would like a set of Java applications
that all deploy the same way. And no, WebStart is not it. Your API,
framework and class library should be deployed differently than a Java
application. I would like to put class libraries into a class library
archive and applications into an application archive. I would like to do
with my compiled code what I already do with compiled C/C++ code. I want
different deployment for shared libraries (.so and .dll) and executable
programs (.exe). More on that later.

Thanks,