“You
keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think
it means.” — Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride, on Vizzini’s
use of the word “inconceivable”.
On
Thursday we announced that
the draft
top-level project charter for Eclipse
Enterprise for Java (EE4J) was available for community
feedback. Since that time, we haven’t received any feedback on
the charter, but we have certainly had a lot of passionate
feedback on the choice of name. If I could, I would summarize
the bulk of the feedback that we’ve seen as “…EE4J is a pretty
good acronym, but WTF is Eclipse doing in the name?” A lot of
that feedback is based on some incorrect assumptions about
what the EE4J name means. Which is totally my fault, because
my initial blog post did not provide any context for how EE4J
will be used, and not used, as a name and a brand. Hopefully
this post will correct that.
Before I
begin, I have to mention that a very large caveat on
everything that follows. This post is based on my best guess
on how things are going to work out, with the information I
have at this moment. However, there are a significant number
of agreements that have to be discussed regarding names,
trademarks, and so on that have not yet been completed. It is
possible that the future will not unfold as I think it will.
So with that said….
EE4J is not the brand
I think
that many people are assuming that EE4J will become the brand
that replaces Java EE. Wrong. Java EE is a certification mark.
To label something as “Java EE”, you need to get a license
from Oracle and pass the TCKs. There are many implementations
of Java EE such as WebLogic, WebSphere, JBoss, and Glassfish.
EE4J is the name of the top-level project at the Eclipse
Foundation. As such it is the umbrella under which the source
code and TCKs for Glassfish, EclipseLink, and (hopefully)
Eclipse MicroProfile will exist.
We are
months away from even starting to define the specification
process that will be used in the future. However, when we do I
expect that this new process will create a new certification
mark which can be properly considered the new “Java EE” name.
We will be engaging with the community in the selection of
that name.
The existing project names
will continue to be used
I have
seen some comments along the lines of “…it’ll be weird to
install Eclipse Enterprise for Java into IntelliJ”. I’m
actually pretty sure that what people will be installing is
more likely to be called something like Eclipse Glassfish, or
Eclipse MicroProfile.
Again,
EE4J is the name of the top-level project at Eclipse. The
projects within EE4J will continue to have their own identity,
just as they do today. The committers and the PMC for EE4J
will be deciding what artifacts they will be releasing and
whether anything actually ships under the name EE4J. Maybe
they will, maybe they won’t. But only time will tell.
The solution space is
smaller than you think
Anyone
who has ever built and maintained a large piece of software
knows that naming is hard. Naming widely used technologies
that take on a brand identity and which require trademarking
are harder still. Selecting the EE4J name had to solve a
number of real world constraints:
- We
wanted it to contain the word Java, but it also had to
comply with the Java trademark guidelines. Oracle is the
only entity that can use the word Java at the beginning of a
name. Which meant that using “for Java” was pretty much a
fixed requirement.
- Whether
you call it JEE, J2EE, or Java EE for the entire life of the
enterprise Java platform “EE” has been in the name.
Continuing that tradition provides some clear benefits in
terms of continuity and brand recognition. For what it is
worth, we basically selected the acronym first and then
backed into what the letters in the acronym might mean.
- The
name has to be available to be trademarked. We actually ran
full legal trademark searches on a couple of alternate
names, and EE4J was the clear winner in terms of
availability.
Summary
Hopefully
this post provides some context for the naming choice that
will help people understand what EE4J is, and is not, as a
project name, brand, and trademark.
As Mark
Little of Red Hat said in
his post earlier today,
There’s
a lot of pent-up passion and energy around Java EE and it
would be so much better if individuals focused that on the
charter at this point than complaining about the name. Yes, I
understand that some people feel the name is important to the
success of this effort but I can tell you all that there’s a
lot more to choosing a name for a foundation or massively
successful project than just … choosing the name.
The
passion and commitment of the people in the Java EE community
is amazing. Working with this community and welcoming you all
to Eclipse is an opportunity and a responsibility that all of
us at the Eclipse Foundation take very seriously. The future
success of EE4J and the enterprise Java platform is going to
be determined by whether we can get you talented, smart, and
passionate Javaistas to contribute to the projects and the
community.
I am
looking forward to JavaOne next week, and hope to see many of
you there!