BEA Supports Open Source J2SE.BEA Systems Inc is throwing its weight behind open source Java, supporting release of Sun Microsystems Inc's desktop implementation and compatibility kits. Scott Dietzen, BEA BEA - Basic programming Environment for interactive-graphical Applications, from Siemens-Nixdorf. chief technology officer, told Sun's JavaOne conference last week: "For the first time, we'd like to go on the record in favor of open sourcing J2SE (Java 2 platform, Standard Edition) See Java 2. J2SE - Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition , and we've been working behind the scenes on this." J2SE, or Java 2 Standard Edition See Java 2. , is Sun's desktop platform and runtime environment that contains many of the elements of Java 2 Enterprise Edition used on servers such as Enterprise Java Beans. Sun, and the Java Community Process Sun's system for allowing third parties to submit requests for new features to Java. JCP is a formal process that must be adhered to, and fees are involved. In 1999, Sun submitted Java to the ECMA standards body, but withdrew its J2SE specification later in the year. , are working towards the latest edition of J2SE: version 5.0. Open sourcing J2SE would potentially help in the delivery of bug fixes for Sun's Technology Compatibility Kits, Dietzen said. TCKs are a suite of tests, tools and documentation used by vendors to determine whether or not their product complies with official JCP See Java Community Process. JCP - Java Community Process standards. TCKs are currently updated through the JCP, a process some in the community regard as too lengthy. "We'd like to see more open sourcing of TCKs," Dietzen said. He also suggested that the open source community could help to speed up the introduction of changes designed to make Java simpler to use for non-Java programmers currently using other languages like C/C++, PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor) A scripting language used to create dynamic Web pages. With syntax from C, Java and Perl, PHP code is embedded within HTML pages for server side execution. , and Python. "We can be doing a lot more if the Java community was reaching out to the PHP, Python, and C/C++ [developers]... this should be our home court. We shouldn't be seeding it to someone else," Dietzen said. He appeared to be making a reference to Microsoft Corp and .NET, which provides a cross-language framework for C/C++, Python and other Microsoft and non-Microsoft languages through the Common Language Runtime See CLR. . Numerous efforts are underway across the Java community, and by individual vendors, to simplify programming in Java. Sun's own Java Studio Creator launched last week uses drag-and-drop development and will help grow the community of Java developers to 10 million, according to Sun. |
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