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From: Jiri Jetmar <juergen.jetmar@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2016 22:23:15 +0100
Message-ID: <CAH+CGsL0VQxOUx2+ATqp8RQH0hC6tu0XPx=75VsCKWosN9h2cg@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Apache Polygene - Future Directions
To: dev@zest.apache.org
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archived-at: Sat, 17 Dec 2016 21:23:23 -0000

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Hi Gang,

now after the renaming activity is over (that is surely still ongoing, but
at least we have a final name and a path), I think it is time
to brainstorm about some future directions of Apache Polygene.

From my perspective Polygene is a DCI and COP oriented programming approach
for Java (but not only). COP and DCI
takes lessons from the last 30-40 years of programming within the
information industry. It is about solving business
problems using a pattern that deals with the given complexity in the
software itself, but it also considers how humans
are solving problems in general, aka the mental model, roles,
functions/actions, etc.

Now, Apache Polygene has a relatively thin core, a number of extensions as
well as a number of libraries. That extensions
and libraries are dedicated to some infrastructural or technical related
problems, e.g. how to connect to a repository X, ..

We are now living in very interesting times, where lot of pretty cool
things happens. E.g. all the "Cloud" related things that allows nearly
endless scalability. Or the docker/rocket thing, that brings the
infrastructure on the level of code. Indeed very interesting.
But, at the end - why do we code ? Its about solving some problems, its not
about to deal with infrastructural, technical
or other things. Indeed, this things has to be solved as well, but this are
a kind of "sub-problems", we code to solve some (business-) problems.

Therefore I;m asking my self since a couple of months, where we should go
with Polygene.

Looking on the Java land, I see there Frameworks like JEE (somebody is
still using it??) or the green monster - aka Spring.. :-)
Pls do not understand me wrong, I somehow like Spring. It becomes with
years pretty huge and now you need a Framework for
the Framework to make it maintainable (Spring Boot). At the end Spring is a
DI thing, so something technical. The respectable
Spring Ecosystem is huge, it offers lot of building blocks to solve
technical and infrastructural problems..  and the company
behind it, is well funded :-)

Again, why do we code ? Well yes, to solve problems, not to deal with
technical/infrastructural challenges as a primary goal.

There is Christmas soon and if I would have some free wishes, I would like
to have a Java Framework that solves purely (business) problems,
that interacts smoothly with the technical solutions, implemented by the
Spring guys. Spring is well funded, they are doing a good job in solving
all sorts of infrastructural things, but Spring is NOT the right Framework
to solve business problems. Disclaimer - it is my own opinion, feel
free to argue in a different way. For me Spring is a abstraction of an
abstraction and at the end a POJO thing and with some DI. As we learned,
POJOs are not enough to solve problems we are facing in the real world.

So imagine Apache Polygene will be the *missing* business stack that Java
is still lacking and is capable to interact with Spring to include
all sorts of already available Spring building blocks - that would be
really great and definitely a unique thing.

Cheers,
Jiri

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