Java Group To Finalize New Charter By Year's End

The Java Community Process (JCP) is finalizing a new version of its charter that will make participation more open-source-friendly, said the leader of Sun Microsystems' JCP office.

JCP 2.5, slated to be complete by the end of the year, would become more open-source-friendly through two Java Specification Requests (JSRs) now in review, said Onno Kluyt, manager of the JCP program office for Sun.

JSR 99 changes the Java specification participation agreement that companies sign to take part in the JCP, the group that decides the future of Java technology standards, Kluyt said.

JSR 99 requires companies leading JSRs to separately provide the technologies that ensure compatibility of Java standards, the test compatibility kit (TCK) and reference implementation, Kluyt said. This enables developers using Java standards to do a clean-room or independent implementation of any JSR without having to adhere to the reference implementation a spec lead has specified, he said.

"If I'm the spec lead for a JSR, you as an implementer can build and develop your implementation without having to get my source code, Kluyt said.

JSR 99 also would make TCKs available free of charge to open-source groups or academic institutions, such as the Apache Software Foundation or universities, Kluyt said. This aspect of the spec is part of an agreement between Sun and Apache, unveiled at the JavaOne 2002 show in March, to make it less prohibitive to create open-source implementations of JSRs.

JSR 99 is in public review and is expected to be finalized in late September, Kluyt said.

The other spec driving JCP 2.5, JSR 171, specifies what happens to JSRs that, although introduced as singular technologies, eventually become part of larger Java standards, such as technologies that end up in the J2EE standard, Kluyt said.

"JSR 171 sets rules for how bundling [technologies] happens, [specifies] when things have to be made available on their own as well as through the platform," Kluyt said.

Currently, Kluyt said there are no rules governing what happens to an individual spec that ends up as part of a larger Java standard. This can lead to confusion as to which technology a Java implementer must support to be compatible with a spec, he added.

JSR 171 is in community review, which ends Aug. 12. It will enter public review in late September and should be finalized sometime in October, Kluyt said.