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Vote for OSGi integration with Java Modules

31 Jan 2008

Glyn Normington posted that a sunbug has been created to track OSGi support in JSR 277 (Java Modules). You can vote for the bug if you would like to see this support and I would encourage you to do so.

For those not familiar with the background, OSGi is a framework for building Java systems from components, declaring dependencies, services, etc. OSGi R4 was finalized as JSR 291 last year. It is being widely deployed in big and small projects alike, for example serving as the underpinning for the Eclipse platform.

Separately, the JSR 277 expert group has been working on a new Java Module System (along with the supporting JSR 294 for Superpackages) and both of these JSRs are targeted at Java 7. There are some representatives from the OSGi world on the JSR 277 expert group, but thus far the work seems to have been largely driven by the Sun spec leads. My impression (and that of others) is that JSR 277 has not been particularly interested in creating a solution that integrates or interoperates well with OSGi.

Glyn Normington is in a unique position in this discussion as he was on the expert group for JSR 291 and was formerly at IBM on the expert group for JSR 277. He has since left IBM for SpringSource and is presumably working on Spring’s movement towards OSGi.

I see the two big changes in Java 7 (in how we write and deploy code day to day) as closures and JSR 277/294. Closures has been grabbing the lion’s share of the attention so far but JSR 277 is equally important. I would urge you to vote now!

_Originally posted on the Java Zone.</em></p>