🚀 go-pugleaf

James P. White wrote...
> For more details (including ISO member comments in the vote on Sun's
> request to be an ISO PAS Submitter and Sun's response) see
> <http://java.sun.com/aboutJava/standardization/>.

Thanks for the reference.  I just slogged my way through some of the
various letters, focusing mostly on Sun's responses to the ISO.  Even
though it isn't the most fun reading, I recommend that all software
engineers at least browse some of these documents, just to get a direct
glimpse of how our languages and standards are hammered out...

In my not-so-humble opinion, Sun seems to be trying to simultaneously do
several things "right": (1) first and foremost, defend Java (the
technology, not the trademark), keep it as open as possible but keep it
self-consistent, elegant, help it evolve intelligently, not dilute the
basic principles around which it was developed; (2) be a reasonably
"good" corporate and world citizen by listening to and working with the
people, companies, and organizations that use or have an interest in
Java; (3) remain a successful and profitable company (which seems to
make them evil in some people's eyes, but I'm glad there's a strong
player to watch over Java, especially against Microsoft, who is not
necessarily evil, but has a competing interest in this whole issue:
operating systems).  These are some tricky issues to balance, and Sun
may not always be able to make everyone happy, but I commend them for at
least trying...

I would be comfortable with the Java(tm) platform (as a whole!) becoming
an ISO standard, with Sun as the facilitating organization.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Andy Moore  atmoore@concentric.net  http://www.concentric.net/~atmoore