--On Wednesday, September 17, 2003 3:33 PM -0400 Henri Yandell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
<snip>
The biggest problem Apache Commons has right now I think is that it
doesn't offer anything to the Commons coder. What does Apache Commons have
over Xml, DB and Jakarta Commons for me as a consumer.
What does DB Commons provide?
The question becomes where is the stronger tie: the purpose of the code, or the fact that it is reusable? I think if the code is primarily reusable and isn't tied directly to a project under scope, then it should end up in Commons.
A reusable Servlet container may belong in Jakarta Commons, but does a thread pool system belong in Jakarta? Unlikely, as I don't think it has any relevance to Jakarta's mission. (Threads are often used in client code.)
relevance to jakarta's mission is an interesting question and one which seems (to me at least) to lie at the hearts of the (apparent?) differences of opinion about jakarta's mission. (this is intended to help common understanding rather than to provoke a flame war.)
IIRC the discussions (at jakarta) on this issue of scope were very long but in the end, the consensus was that any code that is useful on the server is within the scope of jakarta's mission. it seemed the only reasonable position.
a thread pool might (for example) be necessary for a servlet container and vital for other server-side code but it's probably also useful for client code. is a thread pool in scope because it's needed by server side code or excluded because client code might also find it useful? (i ask rhetorically ;)
if a thread pool is excluded from jakarta because it may be useful on a client then the servlet container would also be out of scope (some people have found uses for embedded servers in java gui client). there would be very left little in scope for jakarta if all code which was useful in client code was excluded.
anyway, rather than go over all the old arguments again, i'd say that it'd be better to go forward by looking at the positives that apache commons can offer (rather than getting into an argument about the jakarta mission scope).
- robert
