There has been a lot of talk about what is wrong with the current main enterprise server platforms, whether it's about J2EE, .Net or Oracle.
Many of the Jakarta projects provide a (IMHO) superior alternative to parts of those platforms. Yet Jakarta as a whole does not provide an alternative to the entire platform. I think it would be good if it did. ------------------------------------------------------------ Why An Integrated Solution Would Be Nice ------------------------------------------------------------ ...should be rather obvious. The advantages are exactly what makes many companies get a "complete solution" rather than a loose set of components tied together. Imagine: "Welcome to the Jakarta software platform. _click here_ to download the Jakarta Server Development Kit. It includes all documentation you need; the documenation is also _available online_. Extensions to the base framework include content management tools, template engines, and implementations of many important java standards like Servlets and JMX. Browse the _Jakarta Server Component Library_ to find the applications you need." ------------------------------------------------------------ Why It Doesn't Happen ------------------------------------------------------------ ...is also pretty straightforward. Individual developers work on the various Jakarta projects because they have an immediate, specific need for the project they're working on. So that's what they do. There isn't enough people around devoting energy to inter-project communication to get an integration project underway. ------------------------------------------------------------ What To Do ------------------------------------------------------------ Besides paying Sam Ruby to become a fulltime communications manager, there's a few things I think would help integration. 1) as proposed before, a separate (from general) mailinglist dedicated to general discussion. Sharing thoughts should develop into sharing code every so often. 2) a statement of intent in important places on the website. I'm guessing that putting "we would like to see tomcat integrate with avalon" on the projects' respective websites would mean that such will happen sooner. 3) creation of implementations of Java APIs that increase interoperability between applications (JMX, JNDI, JMS). Having a JMX implementation within the Apache fold would definately ease the tying together of projects. ------------------------------------------------------------ Why This Rant ------------------------------------------------------------ I'm trying to state the obvious here. If anything, I'm curious if anyone has figured out yet where jakarta wants the balance between total-control-of-direction-from-above and total-chaos-where-the-only-authority-is-cvs to be. best regards, - Leo Simons (Avalon project) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
