Once again I'd just like to throw in my tuppence worth (late again ;)...
The issue of including JAVA in OpenACS to some degree or other is fairly close to my heart ;0)
I personally think, despite the few concerns about 'true' open source, that having a strong Java integration/inclusion element is critical, and gets more so every day.
Don and I were chatting the other day, and I recall highlighting that we as a company (OM) have delivered a number of successful ACS based projects, however *none* of them have been actua websites, in their most common form!
In actual fact it turns out that the OpenACS makes a very good general purpose infrastructure/integration platform.
That being the case, I'm sure you can see that access to Java is pretty critical. Many companies are employing Java more and more as their system development language of choice, and therefore unless we have a good story about Java (even if our product isn't) the better placed we are...
So I think Java, as part of OACS, is a must to some degree.....
As for re-development of Java stuff into TCL.... well, its a nice concept, but in reality by doing so we then lose the benefit of ongoing java projects, supported and developed by others.
So in actual fact I'd like to see us resist converting things to TCL for their own sake and leave it as a 'only when its *really* justified'....
Now, if I could just persuade someone to port AOLServer onto Jacal (TCL implemented in Java).... well... we'd really have *the* killer application. A native Java based OpenACS with TCL still remaining as the primary web devlopment tool.... a lethal combination that would surely offer us access to a much wider user base...
Well, I know its a lot of effort, so its just pipedreaming at the moment. This would probably have to something privately funded.... but keep an eye on this space.... I have ambitions to see that happen...
As many of you will know, Java and TCL came out of the same company (SUN) and to an extent the same group of people, and the intention was always that TCL and Java would be complementary tools....
Combining both under AOLServer would surely realise a worthy goal..?
