Java Community Process Leaders Look At Way To Improve

Meeting at Sun Microsystems' Santa Clara, Calif., campus last month, members of the JCP,the group of vendors that create standard Java technologies,said the process of finalizing Java standards often doesn't move as quickly as does the market demand for updates.

But the JCP is still the best way to ensure an open, compatible Java platform, the group members said, adding that they are evaluating ways to improve the process. "Of course, there are things that can be done [more quickly]," said Donald Deutsch, Oracle's vice president of standards strategy and architecture and the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based vendor's representative on the JCP. "As a process, there are things we can do better."

The JCP is certainly not a perfect science. Observers have criticized the group for hampering the evolution of Java and say the JCP is the reason why it's still more difficult to code in Java than it is using Microsoft programming languages and tools.

Even a loyal Java solution provider said it's sometimes easier to use Microsoft development tools because there is no "universe of companies" that decides how .Net will evolve. J2EE will never be as user-friendly "out of the box" as Microsoft tools because there are too many companies deciding on specifications, said Brad Murphy, senior vice president of strategic business development at Valtech, a solution provider in Paris.

If approved, JCP 2.6, which was proposed in May, would be the next version of the program governing the JCP and is expected to give more companies access to Java Specification Requests (JSRs) earlier in the approval process in hopes of hastening it, said Aaron Williams, executive relationship manager at the JCP.

But John Meyer, an analyst at Forrester Research, said that giving more vendors access to JSRs earlier will impede the approval process even more, not speed it up.