Thanks very much for the insights into your decision to package JAXB with
the Web Services Pack.
I just searched JavaWorld for the oldest article lauding the synergy of
Java and XML. The oldest one I came across was dated 1998, although I am
sure it is not the oldest piece of Java/XML evangelism.
XML has since become the oxygen our Java breathes, Web Services or not. We
have been moaning getting the XML stuff in and out of the objects. JAXB has
been long in coming. It is finally here and the vision described by those
old JavaWorld articles has arrived. JAXB is the stuff we need - I would say
it 'belongs' to the Java language.
An easy round trip between XML/Java seems to me to be one of the more
strengthening things one could do for Java. So it is odd to see JAXB
tucked aide in Web Services.
These are my own friendly, personal views and not those of my employer.
Thanks, chris
Discussion list for the Java Architecture for XML Binding
<JAXB-INTEREST_at_JAVA.SUN.COM> wrote on 02/27/2003 04:00:42 PM:
>
>
> Hi,
>
> Since there have been several comments on the JAXB FCS being bundled
> in the JWSDP 1.1, as the engineering manager for both I feel I need
> to offer some rationale for this decision. There are several reasons
> we made this decision.
>
> -In the coming months and years we are going to revving all of our
> XML and Web Services technologies, some of them will be built on
> JAXB and JAXB at some point in the future, may make use of others
> (mostly in the parser area). We felt it was important to have the
> latest greatest set of technologies that were tested together and
> worked together. For instance we hope that in the future JAX-RPC we
> be completely layered on JAXB. For this reason we wanted to
> establish a pattern of releasing them together.
>
>
> -We also realized that some people would not want all the
> technologies hence we tried to make it very clear how to separate
> out just the technologies you were interested in. This was a big
> change from the previous release of the Web Services Pack.
>
> Having said that, I regret that I did not inform this list about the
> decision. This has been a very helpful and lively community that Sun
> has received great benefit from, I apologize for the agony the
> decision has caused some of you.
>
> I will take the feedback to heart and see if we can explore other
> options in the future that will allow us to accomplish the
> objectives I mention above but will also avoid the download size
> issues. I welcome any suggestion you may have on this subject.
>
>
>
>
> Mark Brouwer wrote:
> Ryan Shoemaker - JavaSoft East wrote:
>
> Mark Brouwer wrote:
>
> But I must also admit that the way the Class-Path is assembled in the
> jaxb-xjc.jar is not my way of doing things, but that I guess is the
> effect of bundling all the XML technologies as part of the JWSDP, which
> IMHO has been a very bad decision.
>
>
> I can understand your point of view, but please keep in mind that we are
> providing all of these technologies for free. Aside from the large-ish
> download, we do provide the ability to custom install specific components
> from the JWSDP, so it shouldn't be too much of a burden.
>
>
>
> Ryan,
>
> I always feel unpleasant having criticism about (free) software. But I
> take time to submit bugs and contribute to open source projects, so
> believe me when I say I do it to improve things and not to make teams
> feel bad about their labor.
>
> I also tend to think that if you provide something for free, your only
> reward is the number of happy faces you get from your users.
>
> I can understand the reason for bundling everything together for those
> who want to build webservices and want to have the out-of-the-box
> experience, but my experience tells me each individual technology is
> hindered by it. At least it scares away people who are just looking for
> that particular technology and that are confronted with the overhead.
> And I really can't see in whose interest that would be.
>
>
> While I'm at it, are there any plans to provide maintenance releases or
> seperate releases of JAXB independent of the JWSDP?
>
> At this point, the plan is to ship maintenance releases with the JWSDP.
>
>
>
> Well this is exactly what I'm afraid of, but time will tell if I'm right
> in my fear. I hope you guys win!
> --
> Mark Brouwer
>