Welcome to the October edition of the JCP column! Each month you can read about the Java Community Process: newly submitted JSRs, new draft specs, Java APIs that were finalized, and other news from the JCP. This month there are no less than 22 JSRs worthy of discussion.

J2SE 5.0 Platform Approved
The J2SE 5.0 technology, also known by its development codename "Tiger," is represented by 12 different JSRs including the so-called umbrella JSR 176, which coordinates the coming together of the individual technology JSRs. The JSRs successfully passed their Final Approval Ballot. By the time you read this column the final release should be available from java.sun.com.

The "Wired" Stack of the J2ME Technology
The J2ME environment informally recognizes two technology stacks: the CDC and Personal Profile combination (sometimes referred to as the "wired stack") and the CLDC and MIDP combination (sometimes referred to as the "wireless stack"). A set of four JSRs related to the first stack is progressing through. JSRs 216 and 217 define version 1.1 of the Personal Profile and Personal Basis Profile, respectively. Both JSRs update the J2ME technology with changes from the J2SE 1.4 platform (e.g., updates to AWT and JavaBeans APIs). JSR 218 is developing version 1.1 of the Connected Device Configuration (CDC) and JSR 219 is creating an update to the J2ME Foundation Profile. All four JSRs have now entered Public Review. These JSRs progress under JCP 2.6 and thus the last week of the review will give the ME EC another opportunity to vote on these JSRs.

There is one more JSR in the J2ME space that I'd like to call your attention to. This is Siemens' and Motorola's Mobile Telephony API JSR proposal, number 253. An example of the use of this JSR would be applications that provide conferencing, call scheduling, and voice services, but with the limited resources of the devices in mind.

JavaServer Faces Starts Work on Its Second Installment
JSR 252 was approved by the SE/EE EC with its main goal of providing alignment for JavaServer Faces with JSR 245, which is developing a new version of the JavaServer Pages technology.

Related to the enterprise space is JSR 181, which BEA as the spec lead has succeeded in advancing into Public Review. This JSR defines annotations and metadata for the enterprise Web services sector and builds upon JSR 174, which lays the foundation for annotations functionality in the Java platform.

OSS/J News
Nakina Systems has proposed to develop a specification for an OSS Discovery API (JSR 254). This API would provide mechanisms for the discovery of physical devices and their associated data present on a network. Some areas that the JSR will focus on are discovery seed data, agents, concurrency control, and device security credentials. As the title of the JSR suggests, it's part of the OSS through Java Initiative (OSS/J). A good place to find "OSS/J"-minded developers is at its community on java.net.

And Finally, JSR 255 JMX 2.0
This JSR submission comes ahead of the umbrella JSR for the J2SE 6.0 platform. It will make modifications to the Java Management Extensions as well as the JMX Remote API. Ease of use is one focus of this effort, and the JSR will work on some new functionality.

It will look at generics, use annotations to make writing MBeans easier, address interoperability and versioning concerns for Open MBeans, and provide support for cascaded MBean Servers.

That's it for this month. I'm very interested in your feedback. Please e-mail me with your comments, questions, and suggestions.