Introduction

[Martijn Verburg]

Hi Rony,

Welcome to OpenJDK!  A couple of groups / projects you might be
interested in are:

* http://openjdk.java.net/groups/adoption/ - The place for folks new
to OpenJDK, newcomer questions are most welcome!
* http://openjdk.java.net/projects/openjfx/ - OpenJFX


Cheers,
Martijn


On 18 March 2017 at 18:18, Rony G. Flatscher <Rony.Flatscher at wu.ac.at> wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> My name is Rony G. Flatscher and have signed the OCA, such that I will be able to contribute to the
> Open JDK project.
>
> My first encounter with Java was more than 20 years ago, when IBM distributed Java with the PC
> operating system OS/2. Ever since then I have been using Java including teaching Java programming at
> different Universities and building libraries vor various purposes. Today I am working as an IS
> professor at the WU [1] in Austria, which - with appr. 25,000 students - is one of the largest
> universities of its kind in Europe.
>
> Over the course of the last 30 years I have experimented and finally succeeded in teaching
> programming (later 00-programming) to interested BA students in two lectures (totalling four hours
> plus home and group work). The first lecture [1a] introduces OO programming and has students apply
> the acquired knowledge to automate Windows and programmatically interface with MS Excel and MS Word
> (and non-MS-Windows application) using COM/OLE. The second lecture [1b] adds on the acquired
> knowledge and does the same in a platform independent manner, i.e. teach the students how to do the
> same on Linux and MacOSX in addition to Windows plus teach them the fundamentals of GUI and socket
> programming, how to program, but also create macros for Apache Open Office in place of MS Office on
> Linux and MacOSX (this works for Windows as well). The secret or magic behind teaching this heavy
> load successfully in such a short time is using an easy to learn yet powerful programming
> (scripting) language named ooRexx ([2], [3], [4]) *together* with Java by authoring an ooRexx-Java
> bridge named BSF4ooRexx ([5], [6]). BSF4ooRexx camouflages the strictly typed and strictly cased
> Java as the dynamically typed, caseless ooRexx.
>
> The first steps towards today's BSF4ooRexx involved Apache's Bean Scripting Framework ([6],
> originating from an IBM opensource project to make scripting languages available to Java Server
> pages, JSP). Due to contributions to the ASF BSF project I was invited to become an ASF committer,
> and later an Apache member.
>
> When JSR-223 ([7]) was created to define a scripting framework for Java, I joined as an expert to
> contribute my expertise. With Java 1.6/6, the resulting javax.script [8] package was introduced into
> the Java world in 2006.
>
> With this background it should be understandable that I am very interested in Java scripting and
> applying scriptability in ways that programmers, who are not necessarily professional programmers,
> but "business adminstration programmers", can take full advantage of the latest Java technologies
> and Java class libraries. So I am also interested in the evolution of the Java language and the Java
> runtime environment as well.
>
> Currently I have been very interested in the JavaFX area, as its support for JSR-223 (javax.script)
> makes it possible to take advantage of Java scripting languages. By default this is
> Javascript/Nashorn, but there is support to define any javax.script engine in the context of
> individual FXML files, such that one can implement appropriate controllers not only in Java or
> JavaScript, but in any available Java script language!
>
> I think that advancing the JavaFX javax.script support a little bit in the context of FXML, but also
> in the context of the web engine would make it very attractive for any Java scripting language  to
> employ JavaFX. Also, if one realizes that professional programmers usually use up to three, four
> programming languages (for different purposes, application domains), it would be very attractive if
> JavaFX would allow to mix-in/apply as many scripting languages as a programmer sees fit. So I would
> try to come up with contributions in this area first, by proposing some simple, backwardly
> compatible enhancements to the current support for javax.script.
>
> However, due to my regular work-load this will take some time for me to procure the necessary
> resources to these areas of interest. Any help, any hints and any advices are really always welcome!
>
> Looking forward to interesting, constructive and fruitful interactions with the OpenJDK community,
> hoping to be able to contribute a little bit!
>
> ---rony
>
> [1] WU, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien (Vienna University of Economics and Business):
> <https://www.wu.ac.at/en>
> [1a] "Business Programming 1" (currently taught in German):
> <http://wi.wu.ac.at/rgf/wu/lehre/autowin/2017sBP1/BP1-autowin-2017s-uebersicht.pdf>
> [1b] "Business Programming 2" (currently taught in German):
> <http://wi.wu.ac.at/rgf/wu/lehre/autojava/2017sBP2/BP2-autojava-2017s-uebersicht.pdf>
>
> [2] ECOOP 2006 workshop on dynamic languages, overview article about Rexx and ooRexx: <http://wi.wu-
> wien.ac.at/rgf/rexx/misc/ecoop06/ECOOP2006_RDL_Workshop_Flatscher_Paper.pdf>
> [3] "ooRexx" (Sourceforge) sources, binaries: <https://sourceforge.net/projects/oorexx/>
> [4] "Introduction to Rexx and ooRexx", book, orderable via <http://www.facultas.at/2014/flatscher>
>
> [5] "BSF4ooRexx" (Sourceforge) sources, binaries (download latest beta):
> <https://sourceforge.net/projects/bsf4oorexx/>[6] "Apache Bean Scripting Framework (BSF)":
> <http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-bsf/>
> [7] "JSR-000223 Scripting for the JavaTM":
> <https://jcp.org/aboutJava/communityprocess/final/jsr223/index.html>
> [8] Javadocs 8 for "javax.script":
> <https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/index.html?javax/script/package-summary.html>
>