From mark.reinhold at oracle.com Mon Jul 16 16:55:25 2012 From: mark.reinhold at oracle.com (mark.reinhold at oracle.com) Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2012 16:55:25 -0700 Subject: Welcome to the Java SE 8 (JSR 337) Expert Group Message-ID: <20120716235525.BCCD697E@eggemoggin.niobe.net> We're now up and running, with our primary page here: http://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk8/spec So far we have representatives from IBM, Red Hat, and Oracle. Google has indicated privately to me that they will participate, but they have yet to nominate a specific representative. I've updated the schedule on our web page, and on the jcp.org JSR 337 page, to align with the schedule already proposed for the RI (JDK 8) [1]. I've set up a pair of mailing lists, one for the EG itself and one for observers. Content on our web pages and mailing lists is licensed for evaluation and comment only, using the recently-update OpenJDK Terms of Use [2]. As to release content, I'll have more to say on that soon ... - Mark [1] http://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk8 [2] http://openjdk.java.net/legal/tou From mark.reinhold at oracle.com Tue Jul 17 08:57:24 2012 From: mark.reinhold at oracle.com (mark.reinhold at oracle.com) Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2012 08:57:24 -0700 Subject: Modularity in Java SE 8 Message-ID: <20120717155724.887FD1CA6@eggemoggin.niobe.net> The Java SE 8 Umbrella Platform JSR, as submitted, proposes to integrate a module system directly into the Platform [1]. This would ease the construction and maintenance of large applications, finally allowing developers to escape the "JAR hell" of the brittle and error-prone class-path mechanism. It would also enable the Platform itself to be modularized, so as to support customizable configurations which scale from large servers down to small embedded devices and, in the long term, enable the convergence of Java SE with the higher-end Java ME Platforms. Initial exploratory work toward these goals has been going on in Project Jigsaw in the OpenJDK Community [2]. Steady progress is being made but some significant technical challenges remain, and there is considerable risk that these will not be resolved in time for the proposed Final Release of Java SE 8 in August 2013. There is, more importantly, not enough time left for the broad evaluation, review, and feedback which such a profound change to the Platform demands, both via this JSR (337) and, primarily, a forthcoming JSR to define a standard Java Platform Module System. I therefore propose to defer the addition of a module system and the modularization of the Platform to Java SE 9. This is by no means a pleasant choice, but I think it's preferable to delaying Java SE 8 until the modularity work is complete. This change will slow the long-term effort to converge the Java SE and Java ME Platforms. I therefore further propose that in Java SE 8 we consider defining a small number of Profiles which will, in the meantime, allow compact configurations of the SE Platform to be defined and deployed. (More background on this proposal, if you're interested, is available on my blog: http://mreinhold.org/blog/late-for-the-train) Comments? - Mark [1] http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=337 [2] http://openjdk.java.net/projects/jigsaw/