Community

JavaOne becomes Oracle Code One

My first JavaOne was in 1999 and I have attended almost every one since then, first as an attendee and since 2013 as a speaker. Attending JavaOne has always been one of the highlights of the year. This is where the community meets, announcements are being made and plans laid. I don’t think this will change even if the JavaOne name is replaced by Oracle Code One as was announced yesterday.

https://blogs.oracle.com/developers/javaone-event-expands-with-more-tracks-languages-and-communities-and-new-name

The most important aspect of JavaOne has always been the community and the people. It is kind of sad that the name goes away, but I am confident that we will be able to embrace Oracle Code One with the same community spirit as we did with JavaOne.

Promoting EE4J at Jfokus

During the opening keynote of Jfokus, I was invited up on the big stage to be interviewed about the future of Java EE and my role in the Java community.

The video from the Keynote will probably be available shortly, so I will not repeat everything here word-for-word (even if I could…).

The first topic was the Java Community Process Executive Committe and we talked about how the EC guides the evolution of Java™ technology in the Java Community Process.

The next topic was about the Eclipse Enterprise for Java Project Management Committee and how to get involved in participating in the development of Java EE technologies within EE4J. I will encourage everyone that is interested in following what is going on there to join the ee4j-community mailing list.

My vote goes to Jakarta EE !

I could probably write a long post about why my vote goes to Jakarta EE in the vote for new brand name to take over after Java EE, but it feels much more appropriate to refer to David Blevin‘s excellent description of the process in his blog post Java EE to Jakarta EE.

It has been tough on us keeping these discussions secret since we are all working for an open community and want to share everything. But the importance of securing a name that we as a community can trademark through the Eclipse Foundation makes it well worth the efforts.

A particular think I like about the Jakarta EE name is the significance of Apache Software Foundation and Eclipse Foundation working together for the best of the community.

 

Summing up 2017

2017 was an amazing year for me with a lot of speaking engagements at conferences in four different continents!

Per Lilja joined me in leading Javaforum Malmö and we managed to meet out target of four meetups each year. We are always looking for speakers, so don’t hesitate contact us if you want to present at one of our meetups.

Toward the end of the year, the EE4J PMC started up the work. The most pressing issue right now is to find a brand name to replace Java EE. Hopefully, this will be finalized in near future.

Stay tuned…

 

 

MVC 1.0 goes to Eclipse Foundation

Last year when waiting for my flight home from JavaOne, I blogged Possible Ways forward for MVC 1.0. Now, I am sitting here at SFO again writing a follow-up on that article.

As we all now, the JSR was was transferred to me from Oracle to be completed as a standalone JSR. Since then, Christian Kaltepoth has joined me as specification lead. We never did anything about the actual IP, all in full agreement. After all, we are developers and not lawyers and just wanted to get going with the actual work.

It has never been my intention to capitalize on the IP, and I wanted to figure out a way to donate it all back to the community. As those of you who follow the EE4J Community Mailing List probably noticed, I announced the intention to transfer MVC 1.0 to Eclipse Foundation. Read the announcement here:

https://dev.eclipse.org/mhonarc/lists/ee4j-community/msg00106.html

This does not imply any changes to the current specification work, expert group or time plan. There may be some practical changes, such as a new mailing list and moving the repositories under the Eclipse GitHub Organization, but that is way in the future.

So why Eclipse and not Apache?
Well, it makes sense to follow the other Java EE technologies when they are transferred to the EE4J umbrella project in Eclipse Foundation. MVC would be a natural fit there, but the exact details will be handled by the EE4J PMC.

 

 

Welcome to the #javatrain

Usually, you would expect 10 to follow after 9. But in the world of Java™, things move a little faster. Or at least it will be if the proposed release model in Mark Reinhold’s blog post Moving Java Forward Faster is adopted.

The next version of Java™ will then be versioned as 18.3 and be delivered as soon as March 2018. Then we will get version 18.9 in September, and so on.

In my opinion, this is pretty cool. Having a time-based release cycle for Java™ allows for developers to get smaller features delivered faster without the need to wait for the bigger, more time consuming, features to be completed.

I am convinced this proposal will be discussed and commented a lot in the community, so be sure to follow the #javatrain hashtag on Twitter.

JavaOne Streak 2017

JavaOne is only one month away and it is time to get out of that chair and start moving! That means that JavaOneStreak is on again for the fourth time in a row. The JavaOneStreak initiative was originally started by Arun Gupta back in 2014.

Do some kind of physical activity each day during the month* before JavaOne, log it and share with the hashtag #JavaOneStreak.

You don’t even have to go to JavaOne, but tell us if you are so we can meet up and brag about our achievements.

JavaOneStreak 2014 – Ivar, Heather and Leo
JavaOneStreak 2015 – Leo, Heather and Ivar

*Of course you don’t have to limit it to a month. Try to follow Heinz’ example and run a mile every day year long.

Oracle Opening up Java EE

I just came off a phone call where Oracle were briefing community members about their announcement to open up Java EE. The process has just started and, understandably, there are currently more questions than answers.

  • Oracle finds Java EE to be very successful
  • Millions of applications are using Java EE
  • Oracle plans to continue support of Java EE
  • Java EE 8 will be completed as planned
  • Java EE 8 will also be certified on Java SE 9

By stepping aside and relicensing the technologies to an open source foundation, Oracle hope to address the perception about the openness, agility and flexibility of the current process. What this will actually mean to the Java Community Process (JCP) is uncertain. It will at least have to go through some reform to accommodate the new licensing terms.

One thing to note here, and something that is a really big thumbs up to Oracle, is that they are now informing and including the community and key players in the process from the start.

JavaZone 2017

I am very happy to be back at JavaZone in Oslo this year with a talk called MicroProfile – by Example. In this talk, I will describe the history and reasoning behind the Eclipse MicroProfile initiative, provide code samples and strategies for using all implementations and also introduce the newest addition to MicroProfile – MicroProfile Config.

Of course, there will be lots of demo and code…

 

A Comment on the Jigsaw Vote

Anyone who followed the discussions and comments about JSR 376 – Java™ Platform Module System, aka Jigsaw, the last couple of weeks, should not be very surprised by the result of the Public Review Ballot. As you can see below, 13 out of 23 EC Member voted no and 10 voted yes.

Please see the Ballot Result Page for details. Make sure you read comments in the vote log to understand the reasoning for the votes. Summarized, the two following comments seems to be trending:

  • The specification was not ready to move on as it was submitted
  • The discussions and progress during the 14 day ballot period shows that it is going in the right direction

Is this a bad think for Java™ 9?

I don’t think so. This is just an example that the process is working and that the JCP fulfills its role of ensuring the quality of Java™.

Will Java™ 9 be delayed by this?

Not necessarily. It gives the Expert Group an additional 30 days to respond to the comments from the EC before submitting for a Reconsideration Ballot. The actual release date is nothing that is controlled by the JCP.