We Close Our Eyes

Truth, rumor, and Java source-code licenses

"NB, if you ever sign up, or even look at Java's source, you are no longer eligible to contribute to OSS Java projects as you are now contaminated!"

Interpretations like the above, stated with authority, carry a lot of weight, as they can be frequently repeated, spread about the developer community, with each new recipient taking them at face value.

Kind of a shame that this one isn't true.

This quote, taken from Andy Roberts' The Java Open Source Debate on NewsForge, was at least corrected (and the author graciously ack'ed the correction), but it's not hard to imagine how many such instances can help a bogus factoid take root.

More work has been done to clarify the Java Research License (JRL) to clarify developers' rights when looking at Java source code, and in his weblog entry, Java Research License Update, Ray Gans spells out the nature of the changes:

Thanks to thoughtful comments and questions from the community and great feedback at Java One, Sun has revised the Java Research License (JRL) to address several concerns that have been brought to our attention -- in particular with how it affects open source developers. As before, it is Sun's purpose to make its code easily available to developers under JRL for research and collaboration purposes and to not get in the way of other efforts. In addition we want to make the license possible for a non-lawyer to understand (which believe me is a challenge!) so people don't needlessly worry about accepting its terms. The changes we made are really just clarifications and some cleanup to the existing language, so no java.net projects using this license should be affected. The upshot of the update, we hope, is that more people will now be comfortable about participating in JRL projects.

Also in today's Weblogs, John Reynolds appreciates and contrasts the roles of Innovators and Remodellers: "I admit to RoR envy (It's fun, powerful and innovative) but I am more likely to actually use Facelets (in my work). Facelets doesn't have any fresh ideas (to speak of). It's the improvement of an existing framework (JSF) by the application of other's innovations (Tapestry et. al.)."

In Patterns: Not with Me, Andreas Schaefer writes: "I do not need patterns in my career as Java developer because I think I mastered Java before the patterns book became available. But I don't hate patterns and think they have their place where they are needed. That said many managers do not share my view of patterns and think I am some sort of weirdo, but I think they should rather take the time to view developers as a whole rather than squeeze them into a check list of skills they think they need."