The JCP at the Paris JUG

Yesterday, I've been invited to participate to a presentation / roundtable about the JCP by the Parisian JUG. Patrick Curran, chairman of the JCP, did a very nice presentation, also introducing the future trends for the JCP.

We then had good questions from the audience:

• Is there any collaboration effort / alignment between the JSRs?
  
  
  
  • This needs to be improved and will be.
  
  
  
  


• What will happen to the JCP if Sun is acquired and/or not interested any longer into Java?
  
  
  
  • First this will unlikely happen.
  
  
  • Second, in that case the JCP will turn into a kind of fundation.
  
  
  
  


• Is there a special committee in charge of defining what will be in Java SE 7?
  
  
  
  • No, that's a normal JSR.
  
  
  • We could have a specific long-term architecture committee for the Java platform later.
  
  
  
  


• Why Apache is managing the JDO2 TCK / RI while there is no JSR for JDO 2.0?
  
  
  
  • This is just a maintenance release of JDO2, there is no need for a specific JSR.
  
  
  • Collaboration with open source communities is increasing.
  
  
  
  


• A question about JNI (I can't remember it, sorry)


• Is there a TCK framework that can be reused for new JSRs?
  
  
  
  • Yes there is one.
  
  
  
  


• What can the JCP do top prevent fragmentation of Java (SWT, SCA, OSGi...)?
  
  
  
  • There is nothing to do, private innovation is norma. In the long-term, once successfull these initiatives could join the specification effort.
  
  
  
  


• Java has a long list of old JSRs. Is there a cleaning process?
  
  
  
  • I can't remember Patrick's answer to that one, sorry.
  
  
  
  


• Who decide which features are part of Java EE or Java SE?
  
  
  
  • The expert groups in the JSRs.
  
  
  
  


• What Sun is doing to develop Java on mobile devices against initiatives from Google and Adobe?
  
  
  
  • Nokia, Ericsson and other major players in this area are already part of the JCP and are leading JSRs.
  
  
  
  

After a short break, we had the roundtable with Patrick Curran, Antonio Goncalves (co-leader of the Paris JUG), Guillaume Laforge (Groovy Spec Lead), and Cedric Thomas who runs OW2 (Object Web 2.0), the open source consortium. We had a good and animated debate with sharp questions:

• How to simplify the licensing of TCK
  
  
  
  • Working on it...
  
  
  
  


• Are free RIs (reference implementations) a threat for vendors?
  
  
  
  • No, it is not.
  
  
  
  


• Do we really TCKs
  
  
  
  • I said, it is rather a tool than a constraint
  
  
  • We embed into our own testsuite
  
  
  • It helps improving the specification
  
  
  
  


• Need for more process for the specification work (timelines, voting rules, etc.)


• Should performance and QoS be part of the TCK?
  
  
  
  • No the TCK just checks features compliance
  
  
  • Vendors will then compare products based on performance, quality...
  
  
  
  


• Why Java FX is not defined within the JCP?
  
  
  
  • That used to be a personal initiative, it could join the JCP later.
  
  
  
  


• Why Java is the only language with an heavy specification process?
  
  
  
  • Java is not alone, there are numerous IT standardization organizations (400 just in the US according to Patrick).
  
  
  • OASIS is another example.
  
  
  
  


• Once again a question about Java SE 7...

Then after that good roundtable, it was the time for some beers: we had plenty of time to reinvent the whole IT space.

Thank you to Antonio Goncalves and David for this nice event. Antonio is a talented IT expert and consultant, he is also a member of the JPA 2 expert group, and used to be one of the first customers of Xcalia. He also likes Jaco Pastorius, the legendary jazz bass player, which proves he also has a good taste and genuine values.