[jsr294-modularity-eg] Placing JSR 277 on hold

[BJ Hargrave]

Alex Buckley <Alex.Buckley at SUN.COM> wrote on 2008/12/22 17:54:13:

> 277 Experts,
> 
> Sun recently announced [1] that it plans to modularize the JDK using a 
> new module system, Jigsaw, to be developed as an OpenJDK project.
> 
> In light of this, I am requesting your cooperation in placing JSR 277 on 

> hold for Java SE 7.
> 
> I also request your cooperation in reviving JSR 294 as a standalone JSR 
> to standardize language and VM features that support modularization of 
> JDK 7 and the Java SE Platform itself. Some initial thoughts - not 
> requirements, not solutions, just thoughts - on language features were 
> presented at Devoxx earlier this month [2].

There has been very little public discussion on JSR 294 since early in 
2008. In Jan and Feb 2008, EDR comments were discussed which lead to much 
improved design proposal (replacing superpackages proposal with module 
keyword proposal) in March 2008. In April 2008, JSR 294 was folded into 
JSR 277 and, from my analysis, no further discussion of the 294 originated 
language changes occurred in the 277 mail list. So the last meaningful 
public discussion on JSR 294 occurred in April 2008.

So we are now 9 months later and getting back to work on JSR 294 which I 
welcome. Given that so much time has elapsed since April 2008, we need to 
have the current 294 design mailed to the EG to refresh our brains. We 
need to set a baseline for our future discussions. When can this EG expect 
to receive the latest 294 design document?

Unfortunately, in these last 9 months, any discussions that occurred 
regarding this JSR (and 277) seem to have decayed into 1-way 
communications (people blogging *at* others) and a number of 2-way 
conversations (Sun speaking directly to individual EG members). This is 
very disappointing. I feel we *must* return to having the discussions on 
this JSR occur in the central mailing list for the EG (one N-way 
communication amongst the EG members, and observable by the public). This 
is necessary to have a healthy EG and produce a robust result acceptable 
by all.

> 
> JSR 294 will not design a module system. Sun plans to work directly with 

> the OSGi Alliance so that a future version of the OSGi Framework can 
> fully leverage the language and VM features of JSR 294. I also expect 
> the OpenJDK Jigsaw mailing list will discuss Jigsaw/OSGi interop.

I look forward to Sun's involvement at OSGi. Making sure the 294 design is 
decoupled from Jigsaw such that all module systems can exploit it will be 
best for Java. This is an excellent requirement for JSR 294.

> 
> I invite all 277 Expert Group members to join the 294 Expert Group. I 
> plan to use the OpenJDK Jigsaw mailing list for 294 discussions, so that 

> anyone can easily join and comment. However, the identity and authority 
> of the Expert Group will be preserved.

I think it is a bad idea to have the 294 discussion in the Jigsaw mailing 
list. The Jigsaw mailing list should be for the purpose of discussing 
Jigsaw which is not a JSR. JSR 294 discussions must not be in the Jigsaw 
mailing list. As I see this, Sun is being quite clear regarding the 
distinction between JSR 294 (a JCP JSR which is not coupled to Jigsaw) and 
Project Jigsaw (which is an OpenJDK project that will not be part of the 
Java 7 platform spec). Therefore, we must have separate mailing lists to 
clearly separate these two efforts.

Until this mail was sent to JSR-294-EG at JCP.ORG, all prior 294 mail was 
sent to jsr294-modularity-eg at cs.oswego.edu. It would be best to continue 
with the original mail list since it will keep all the mail archived 
together.

> 
> Alex
> 
> [1] http://blogs.sun.com/mr/entry/jigsaw
> [2] http://blogs.sun.com/abuckley/entry/devoxx_2008

Thanks Alex. I look forward to making progress on JSR 294.

-- 

BJ Hargrave
Senior Technical Staff Member, IBM
OSGi Fellow and CTO of the OSGi Alliance
hargrave at us.ibm.com

office: +1 386 848 1781
mobile: +1 386 848 3788
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