Wow, that was fast. I got a direct response from one of the two original creators of BML, Sanjiva Weerawarana:

...I still believe BML has a useful role in life. We still have some of our original trusty users who periodically email us asking for status / updates etc..

What's the right thing to do? I am quite certain that we can get it open-sourced (I mean from an IBM process point of view), but I haven't yet been convinced that there'd be a willing community for it yet.

This tells me that there's still some life left in the project, so I certainly won't be running off to release my unauthorized decompilation. Besides respect of ownership and authorship, it'd be nice to see a sanctioned release of the real code, comments and all.

Sanjiva asks what to do and who wants it. I say: Gimme, and I want it! But of course there's more, in terms of effort and consideration, to an Open Source project than that. So, where's the interest (besides me) to make it worth doing?

I'm not sure. Seems very nifty to me, but again, I see barely a mention on Google. But, I look at Thinlet buzz that recently bubbled through my news scan, with raves about the XML wiring for GUI and quickness in assembling apps. It's very cool. And then I wonder how cool might it be to combine the two, or use BML instead of Thinlet.

Is the lack of interest a product of a lack of word getting out? Or, again, have I missed something in my return to the world of Java?

shortname=ooobcd

Archived Comments

  • BTW, I forgot to mention in my comment: Thanks to Sam Ruby for pointing me to your posting. He finally tipped the scale for me on blogging .. I'll start one too ;-). Sanjiva.
  • I agree that BML was very interesting when I last looked at it... As an aside, I have noticed that quite a few "very cool" projects at IBM AlphaWorks don't get the tech buzz they deserve... I'm thinking specifically of http://sash.alphaworks.com
  • You might wonna check out Luxor - a GPL'ed XUL toolkit in Java - that is more ambitious than Thinlets or BeanML. Luxor goal is to make building cross-platform desktop apps as easy as web pages. Find out more at http://luxor-xul.sourceforge.net I also keep a XUL blog entitled "The Richmond Post" - Chronicle of the XUL Revolution - online at http://luxor-xul.sourceforge.net/post/