OpenJDK governing board, constitution

[Doug Lea]

Neal Gafter wrote:
> The reason I ask is that I'm worried that openJDK may turn into the 
> defacto mechanism for features getting into the platform.  The JCP used 
> to play that role, but there has been little activity in forming a JSR 
> for Java SE 7 in the past few years. 

There has been some (sadly unavoidable) lack of transparency
in JCP that has given many people this mis-impression. The
JCP and its Executive Committee (that I am on) very much wants
the JCP to play the central role in driving major releases.
However, it has been stuck for a long while in policy impasses
(such as disputes over terms of TCK tests involving undisclosable
legal matters) that have made it impossible to approve a Java7
Release JSR. Everyone involved hopes that these are resolved soon.
And many of us have invested a fair amount of time trying
to help resolve them.

In the absence of resolution, Java7 plans have been left in a
long gestation mode. Spec leads and contributors (not just
at Sun) involved with changes and additions likely to make it in
to a next major release seem to be proceeding with plans, but
without an identifiable central coordination point. Placing
likely Java7 release contributions in openJDK is a convenient
way to maintain progress in the mean time, and presence
of code in openJDK repositories is one good indication of
some of functionality that some of them intend to include.

When a Java7 Release JSR can be proposed, it will
probably be able proceed quickly. Until then, the whole
process has an unfortunate shadowy-cabal appearance,
which does indeed suck.

-Doug