Josh On Design

Last week I gave a presentation on Project Peabody for the Los Angeles Java Users Group, and I think it was well received. What's that? You've never heard of Project Peabody? That's okay. No one at the LA-JUG had heard of it either. We've only recently started using the name. Project Peabody is our community development project for new releases of Java; principally Mustang, aka: Java SE 6

Project Peabody is Sun's answer to the concerns of Java developers about the future development of Java. We've heard that you want to see the source code, to be able to contribute fixes, more transparency of the process itself, and to preserve compatibility across all versions and platforms. This is what Project Peabody does. It lets you download weekly builds, contribute improvements and bug fixes, and for emergencies you can even use a modified build within your organization without going through the compatibility tests.

These are all really good things, but the part I'm most interested in is getting more people to download new builds, test their apps, and send me fixes and bug reports. I'm the client rep on the Peabody Team so I'm especially interested in any client fixes you have.

Here is a copy of the presentation in Open Office and PowerPoint formats:

• Open Office Format
• PowerPoint Format

Peabody is still a relatively new process for Sun, so we still have details to work out. If there is anything that you would like us to improve about the submission or development process then please let us know.

- Josh