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by Alan Williamson.
Original Post: Sun vs. Community
Feed Title: Technical @ alan.blog-city.com
Feed URL: http://www.ibm.com/us/en/
Feed Description: (Technical) the rants of a java developer trapped in the body of a java developer!
I am having fun reading all the nonsense surrounding the latest JavaLobby incident over its misuse of the official Java documentation and can't help see a familiar feel to it all.
Sun vs. Community; a battle of David and Goliath proportions?
Sadly it's not nearly as exciting as that but like any good story, we have our hero and villain. The villain naturally is the big bad corporate who isn't thinking of anything but themselves and their bottom line. Next, we have the hero, the dashing young gent who will come running in to save the day. Maybe not so much a traditional fisty-cuffs-at-dawn sort of fight, but more your "A Few Good Men" final court room scene. The villain has been wonderfully cast in our epic as Sun, with the lead Tom-Cruise role going to none other than Rick Ross.
Although it is fair to note that in "A Few Good Men", Tom-Cruise didn't actually have anything to do with the crime in question, not like our hero here, who in actual fact perpetrated said crime. What did he do that was so hideous?
He authorized his team to play with toys from the Sun play pen without asking anyone first. Team gets caught, citing as their defense, "its okay, the big man squared it away", only to realize that this wasn't the case at all. Oops. The "best to ask forgiveness than permission" strategy didn't work here.
All good movies have a historical plot rumbling along in the background. You know the wise old lawyer who has been there done it, fought the battle, lost, and is now watching the latest upshot make all the same mistakes. Our epic is no different. Although in this role I would have to cast myself in the role.
[cue scene of man fishing on a boat in the middle of no where, happy in the fact that the rat-race is somewhere over the hill far far away from him]
A number of years ago, we (the JDJ Editors) had the idea of hosting the Java Docs and opening up the system to allow others to comment and make real world observations on how a given class/method worked in the field. We even had a book deal going through the works with a publisher, who would collate this information and produce a companion to the Java documentation. Before we could begin this a small thing bothered us; that little message on the bottom of every single Java Doc page;
Copyright 1993-2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc. 901 San Antonio Road Palo Alto, California, 94303, U.S.A. All Rights Reserved.
Damn it! How unsporting of them! So like the dutiful editor, I made meetings with Sun and discussed the greatness of our idea. They loved it, but said it would never happen due to legal. I pleaded. No move. I talked to the big Java lady herself; and as another strong lady once uttered "the lady's not for turning".
Left out in the cold (metaphorically speaking) we headed back east, heads hung low, muttering the question, why would Sun not let the community help? And thats where the story ends for us, and where our new Tom-Cruise picks it up.
I am glad that Rick recycled this idea a few years later and I have to admit to being a little surprised that he didn't seek the proper approval to begin with. JDocs is a good idea and should be allowed to grow.
Of course the community doesn't need it, we've managed thus far without it, but thats not the point. We want it! Its a cool thing to have and while it may show only too painfully the weaknesses of some parts of the API at least others can benefit from the more experienced hindsight. Rick has managed to do what he does best, whip up controversy making himself out to be fighting the fight for the little guy, hoping Sun will bow to public pressure and just let them use JDocs. Whether they do or not is yet to be seen.
So where does the story end? Maybe Rick will goad Scott McNealy into shouting at the top of his voice;
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