A question @Mark Wilaard (and other developer)

[Roman Kennke]

Hi Patrick.

> On Sun, 2006-09-03 at 13:11 +0000, theUser BL wrote:
>> Have a look at
>> http://forums.java.net/jive/thread.jspa?threadID=18036&tstart=0
>> there I have written a qustion at Mark and other developers.

IMO, it is not necessary and feasible to have The One OSS/F Java 
implementation. That's not how the Free Software model has worked in the 
past and I see no reason why it would in the future and for Java. Just 
look at the kernels, desktops, editors, etc etc, where there's always 
the question 'why not pull forces together and work on The One 
implementation'. Easy answer, there's lots of different people and 
groups involved in free software development with different goals and 
requirements, different development models, different ideals etc etc. 
And really, I think the world would not be any better with only one 
implementation of them all. AFAICS, it's apparent the having more than 
one implementation is better in most cases.

What I'd find best for Java is something like we have in the BSD world. 
Friendly competing communities, with code flowing freely in all 
directions. Something similar would be healthy for Java too, having 3 
implementations in friendly competetion with code flowing between them 
as it fits. Of course, the basic requirements for this is that all 3 
licenses allow such a scenario. It would be sad if there's only 1 or 2 
of the implementations 'inside' and the other(s) 'outside' of the Java 
community. I'd really like to see Sun, Harmony and Classpath developing 
and improving Java, all in their own ways and using their own methods. 
This could allow one party to focus on their stuff and include other 
pieces from other parties.

Of course, when GNU, Sun and Apache can get together to work on one 
implementation, that would be great, but very very unlikely. Just as 
unlikely as a Gnome-KDE merger, or a Linux/*BSD/Hurd merger, etc.

Cheers, Roman