Dr. Dobb's Journal September 1999
Some guys just flat out miss their calling. Take James Barry, for instance. Instead of settling for a career in the sedate world of, say, international diplomacy or hostage negotiation, Barry opted for something more exciting, something high tech. The State Department's loss was IBM's gain, as Barry eventually ended up as WebSphere product manager, where he was instrumental in negotiating IBM's move from a proprietary server to the open-source Apache web server -- a move that stunned some industry observers, yet delighted many more.
But Barry didn't stop there. It next occurred to him that Sun's Java Server Page (JSP) specification was taking far too long to see the light of day. This was unfortunate, he thought, considering the importance of JSP to Sun, IBM, and the Internet community. The way Barry sees it, server-side Java will drive the Internet, and JSP can facilitate this by making it easier for developers to separate content from code. But Java's chance at being the programming language of choice for server-side development was being jeopardized, it seemed, by Sun's slowness in releasing the final spec, thereby leaving the door open for competitors such as ASP, PSP, and the like. Additionally, more and more companies were developing their own servlet engines, adding proprietary features in the process. Clearly, the promise of a truly platform-independent, portable servlet engine was fading.
So about a year ago, Barry decided to diplomatically move the spec along by bringing together programmers from IBM, Sun, and the Apache Group. The seed of the idea that Barry planted was to open source the JSP specification in a Mozilla-like fashion. He then stepped back to watch the fun begin.
Among those at Sun who latched on to Barry's notion were Connie Weiss, JSP engineering manager, and James Davidson, author of the Servlet API Specification. But the more the Sun engineering group wrestled with the concept, the more it seemed Barry hadn't gone far enough. That's when the engineering staff began lobbying management to take a bold step, culminating in James Gosling's dramatic announcement at the JavaOne Conference that Sun would turn over to the Apache Group the Java Server Development Kit (Sun's reference implementation for the Servlet and JSP specs) -- including all source code -- with no strings attached. This coincided with the Apache Group's launch of the Apache Software Foundation (see "News & Views," page 16) and subsequent announcement it was rolling its JServ Java Apache Project into the newly formed Jakarta Project (http://jakarta.apache.org/) -- a 100% Pure Java Servlet and JSP implementation that will be implemented in the Apache web server (the most widely used web server) and other software.
Why is this such a big deal? For one thing, it validates the concept of collaborative, open-source software development. The Apache Group earned the right to lead the way in server-side Java by proving to Sun and the rest of the world that volunteer programmers working together can deliver high-quality code on predetermined schedules. For its part, the Jakarta announcement ensures that, for the time being anyway, a key technology will not be controlled by a single corporate entity, but rather by a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of technology and the spirit of communication.
In the meantime, James Barry has likely kicked back with his feet up on the desk, wondering what his next project will be. Hmm, what is all the fuss about in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, anyway?
Dr. Dobb's Journal
Editorial Calendar 2000
| January | Scripting & Alternative Languages |
| February | Java Programming |
| March | Benchmarking & Testing |
| April | Algorithms & Data Structures |
| May | Communications & Networking |
| June | Object-Oriented Design |
| July | Distributed Computing |
| August | Graphics Programming |
| September | Scientific & Numerical Computing |
| October | C++ Programming |
| November | Computer Security |
| December | Operating Systems |
Jonathan Erickson
editor-in-chief
jerickson@ddj.com