IMO, consultants and researchers are the earthworms of a vibrant OS community that meets the standards sought after at the ASF. I don’t see how we’re going to attract them. While the ideas posited on the mailing lists are pretty interesting, I just don’t see any of the ideas attracting a larger active community. The reasons for this are the lack of interest in JEE inability to use a reasonably current JEE TCK the size and age of the legacy code base project members unable to commit time resources to mentor new members When one reads about JEE not being “dead yet”, one is actually reading about a very small subset of the JEE spec. To be sure, there are interesting problems still to be solved within certain silos of JEE. I can’t think of anything that would apply to the entire pantheon of JEE bits; imo TomEE is already focused on the sweet spot of JEE bits that are still relevant. One is hard pressed to think of any JEE sub-system in Geronimo that is not already separate project. The reality is that Geronimo was an amalgam of OSS projects and the industry has preserved those JEE bits that are still relevant. The "value add", in no small part, of Geronimo was the comprehensive testing of the JEE pantheon in toto via the TCK.
Given that we cannot use a reasonably current JEE TCK, the project is prevented from engaging in a role of JEE-commons of sorts. Frankly, even if we were to get the current JEE TCK, nobody really cares anymore and, as I mentioned above, the interesting JEE bits are already being worked on elsewhere with their own specific TCKs. The size and age of the codebase makes it virtually impenetrable. When one precludes spec commits, I think the last real commit has been about a half a decade ago; I wouldn’t be surprised if it was longer. I personally have been knee deep in it recently but find spelunking through it very daunting. I’d rather spend any free time I have in some greenfield endeavor. I’m certain that other project members and passersby are of the same mind. Since I have such little time to do greenfield coding, I have even less time to mentor someone who is interested in tinkering with the code base. I’ve no doubt that others are of the same mind on this as well; witness the dearth of replies to inquiries on this list. There is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in this project. I, for one, am honored to have been able to work with the world’s brightest coders on the planet. I have a lot of great memories, and hangovers, of our once vibrant community and it’s very hard for me to start this thread. I think we should shutdown. If anyone had a real interest in any kind of resurrection it would have happened by now. If we have consensus on moving to the Attic, I will start a vote. How things are “wound down” will be discussed in a separate thread, soon to follow. Regards, Alan Cabrera V.P. Apache Geronimo P.S. Please resist the urge hop in and administer CPR. Before jumping on the table, be brutally honest and ask yourself if you are operating on actionable facts, or fond well earned memories.
