Sun: Java ubiquity an advantage in RIA battle

"The entire process of reform may take us a couple of years, but there are certainly things we could do in a period of months," Curran said. He cited planned reforms around openness and transparency, which include putting forth a formal process for submitting public comments on JCP proposals and having responses developed to these comments. Public mailing lists might be set up toward this end, Curran said.

Sun's control over Java is lessening. Sun, Curran said, is no longer the specification lead for the majority of Java Specification Requests (JSR) submitted to the JCP. JSRs encapsulate proposed changes to Java on many fronts. Sun also bowed recently to those who want OSGi supported in the upcoming version of Java SE, said Curran.

Sun offered Java up to open source in November 2006. The open-sourcing, however, does not eliminate the need for the JCP to oversee development of the Java platform, said Curran. Open source guarantees openness and transparency, but it does not provide for the development of formal specifications, conformance tests, or the likelihood of competing implementations, he said.

Meanwhile, in June Sun plans to upgrade to its SOA package, Java Composite Application Platform Suite (CAPS). Version 6 of the suite will have capabilities to show unified subject views. These capabilities are derived from Sun's open source Project Mural, which focuses on master data management, Sun officials said. Project Mural unifies information about a customer, or perhaps a citizen or medical patient, to present a single view of the subject in question.

CAPS also features the GlassFish application server, the Open ESB enterprise service bus, business process capabilities, and legacy adapters. The upgrade will be called CAPS 6.

"[CAPS] is our SOA platform," said Mark Herring, Sun vice president of software infrastructure marketing.