Tomcat-as-a-reference implementation?

[Ted Neward]

Does anybody else have a problem with a "production-quality" servlet engine also serving as the reference implementation for servlets and/or JSP?   I have always operated under the belief that a "reference implementation" was supposed to be plain-vanilla, no optimizations, stick-to-the-letter-of-the-spec, if-it-ain't-in-the-spec-it-ain't-in-here kind of implementation. JSWDK was precisely this--it demonstrated servlets simply, cleanly (IMHO), without a lot of bells-n-whistles to get in the way.   My concern is that Sun's stated intent (by calling it a reference implementation) is at cross-purposes with Apache's stated intent (to make it a production-quality engine). These are, for the most part, mutually-exclusive goals.   I applaud Sun's release of the JSWDK code to OpenSource, but does JSWDK, as a reference implementation, have to cede existence to Tomcat/JServ? Why not keep both? That is, have Tomcat use those parts of JSWDK-the-reference-imp where it sees a potential for reuse, and optimize those areas that need optimization?   Comments?   Ted Neward Java Instructor, DevelopMentor ( http://www.develop.com ) http://www.javageeks.com/~tneward