OSGi (or - late to the party again)...

Just when I thought that I might have been getting in on the beginning of 'the next big thing' - I find out that I am actually ten years (years?) late.

Recently the Apache foundation accepted a new podling into the Incubator called Aries.

If you are unfamiliar with the 'Incubator' and/or 'podlings' - take a look at this page on the Apache website:  http://incubator.apache.org/

Anyway, the Aries project seeks to develop the bridge between OSGi and Java EE.

I have come to really like the way that Java EE makes separating the front end development from back end processing.  And since OSGi seems to be the way that much of the Java world is going - I'm trying to get in on the ground floor with Aries.

But, the 'ground floor' is pretty high.  OSGi has been around for ten years now.  And so there is quite a lot of 'assumed knowledge' that goes along with it.  Also, the actual specifications for Java EE in OSGi are still being written and are not expected to be finished until the beginning of 2010.  Aries hopes to help in fleshing out those specs as well as providing an implementation of them.

Well, I should get back to reading the specs that have been written.  They are only 516 pages long (ack!).

So far.