|
by: Benoy Jose
Introduction:
Today Java has established itself as a reliable platform for
web technologies. It owes a large chunk of its success to
contributions both monetary and technical from individual
developers and companies like IBM, HP, BEA etc. The unofficial
process of contribution until 1998 has been through news groups,
technical forums and business partners providing valuable
feedback to help build Java. In 1999 sun proposed to form a Java
Community Process (JCP) to formalize the contributions from
business partners and companies to accelerate the growth of Java
and to make it a transparent body providing industry relevant
specifications. The attempt is to bring industry experts who
know the Java language, business users who eventually use the
product, business partners who provide the product to the users
and the developers who build the system to a common platform and
produce industry relevant and reliable specifications.
In this article we shall outline the Java Community Process and
its procedures.
Why do we need the Java Community Process?
Sun and its partners are in a constant endeavor to improve the
language. To keep it current to the needs of the industry, Sun
includes changes suggested by the industry and releases minor
and major versions of the J2EE spec. The drawback of this
approach is the onus falls solely on Sun to keep track of the
changes required by the industry and include them in to the J2EE
specification. As the user base of Java increased, so did the
demands for new features. Different industries either built
their own proprietary API's or relied upon open source
communities to develop API's for them. This resulted in multiple
specifications floating in the market for almost similar
technologies. The Java Community Process endeavors to curb this
menace and provide a unified and neutral specification extension
to all industry players.
Where to Start:
If you have a brilliant idea and wish to contribute to the Java
community process, you may start with submitting a Java
Specification Request (JSR) to the Program Management Office
(PMO). Before we go into the details of submitting the JSR lets
have a brief overview of the important players in the game.
Executive Committee (EC):
The most important group of players overlooking the whole JCP
process are the Executive Committee (EC). They consist of
prominent members of the Java community who could be individual
members nominated for their merit or partner companies that
contribute to the growth of Java. These are the people who would
eventually guide the evolution of Java. The executive committee
consists of sixteen members and a non-voting chair. The members
are chosen from Java Community Process members and shall have
one vote each. The chair of the committee will be a member of
the Program management office. Sun Microsystems will have a
permanent voting seat on the Executive committee. Apart from Sun
there are ten ratified voting seats and five elected voting
seats. These non-permanent members have a term of three years.
Companies may have only one person on the EC at any time. If two
companies on the committee merge then one member of one of the
companies need to give way to a new member.
The Executive committee is responsible for selecting JSRs for
development within the JCP, approve draft specifications for
public review and give final approval to completed
Specifications and their associated Reference Implementations
and Technology Compatibility Kits.
Apart from these duties EC needs to review maintenance versions,
coordinate work between members for purposes of maintenance and
development and provide the PMO with advice regarding the
progress of the JSR.
Program Management Office (PMO):
This group is formed by Sun Microsystems and is responsible for
the running the JCP. The chairman of the EC is selected from the
PMO. The PMO receives the applications for JSR's and does the
appropriate forwarding to the different committees.
Java community Process member:
This is an individual, organization or company that has signed
a one year membership agreement with Sun to participate in the
Java community process. This membership carries a fee of
$5000/year for commercial entities and $2000/year for
educational, governmental or non-profit agencies. However
individual members or Java licensees are exempted from this fee.
Only a member or a group of members of this group can submit new
JSR's.
Experts Group:
A group of experts suggested or chosen by the specification
lead to shape the content of the new specification. This group
typically would be developers working in related fields and
members from companies that would eventually use the
specification. The experts group has the responsibility to shape
and complete the content of the new specifications by working on
the proposal provided by the Specification Lead and provide the
Reference Implementation and the Compatibility Test Suite. They
also choose other members of the experts group and may maintain
the specification after it is written, approved and moves to the
maintenance stage.
Specification Lead:
The Specification Lead is the key person involved in the JSR.
He prepares the proposal for the JSR and submits it to the PMO.
He also provides suggestions on who should be on the EC. The
members of the EC can also be nominated by other members of the
Java Community Process. The nominated members are forwarded by
the PMO to the Specification Lead.
New on the Java Boutique:
New Review:
Time Management Made Easy with the Quartz Enterprise Job Scheduler
Why not just use the Java timer API? This open source scheduling
API boasts simplicity, ease-of-integration, a well-rounded feature
set, and it's free!
New Applet:
Reverse Complement
Reverse Complement is a simple applet that converts DNA or RNA
sequences into three useful formats.
Elsewhere on internet.com:
WebDeveloper Java
Lots of Java information on webdeveloper.com
WDVL Java
Thorough Java resource at the Web Developer's Virtual Library.
ScriptSearch Java
Hundreds of free Java code files to download.
jGuru: Your View of the Java Universe
Customizable portal with online training, FAQs, regular news updates, and tutorials.
| 
