Le 2025-04-01 à 11 h 07, Gary Gregory a écrit :
I suppose it feels like Java is still being developed in an ivory
tower away from the real world. The constant reinventing the wheel
(logging and http client APIs are obvious examples). I suppose OSGi
vs. JPMS could fall into this category.
The balance is sometime difficult to find. I do not know which arguments
were debated inside Oracle. But I'm involved in debates inside another
(non-Java) standardization organization, where the same thing is said:
why an international standard should reinvent the wheel when an existing
library already does the work? Some reasons that are debated are:
* Consistency. An organization such as ISO (for example) tries to keep
a consistent pattern between standards. They do not fully succeed,
but at least they try. Existing projects, by contrast, tend to be
independent from each other and therefore heterogeneous. So a
standard organization can receive on one side complains that it
reinvent the wheel, and on the other side complains that its
standards lack consistency.
* Important use cases. A project may cover the needs of the
individuals who developed it and said that it covers 95% of the
needs of the market. That may be true, but if the remaining 5%
drives nuclear power plans or airports, this is something that a
standard organization needs to take in account.
I'm not saying that what Oracle did is right or wrong. I'm just saying
that, if their experience is similar to what I have see in
standardization organizations, they may be faced to more difficult
decisions than what we may imagine from outside.
Martin
