Eclipse Joins Java Community Process

Eclipse also took out memberships in two other industry groups focused on interoperability and standardization efforts: the Object Management Group (OMG) and the OSGi Alliance.

How active Eclipse will be in the organizations remains an open question. "I largely view this as part of Eclipse maturing and playing a more active part in the broader community," Eclipse Executive Director Mike Milinkovich wrote in a blog post. "Many projects at Eclipse rely on standards from JCP, OMG and OSGi, and we believe its simply good behavior to contribute back by joining. Whether we have the resources available to actively participate will take some time to sort out."

Relations between Sun and Eclipse have been testy at times, and Sun has steadfastly resisted to join Eclipse, even as it became a dominant force in Java tools development. Sun remains committed to its own IDE, NetBeans.

Still, Sun put on a chipper air and celebrated Eclipse's JCP arrival -- even though it's unlikely to return the favor and take out an Eclipse membership.

"This is great news for the Eclipse platform and for Java technology and developers," Onno Kluyt, chair of the JCP and director of the JCP Program at Sun, said in a statement. "Many of the Eclipse projects already implement standards developed through the JCP, and the move to formally join the community is an indication that an even greater involvement with Java standards development and implementation is to be expected."