Rivals unite to create Java specs

BEA Systems and IBM, rivals in the application server software market, are teaming up to propose three Java specifications in a bid to further the cause of application consistency and portability.

The two companies published the specifications in November and submitted them under royalty-free terms to the Java Community Process (JCP) organization, which Sun has set up to evolve its Java technology.

Perhaps the most significant specification for corporate developers is one called Service Data Objects (SDO). SDO aims to provide a simple, unified programming model for accessing data from heterogeneous systems, including relational databases, XML-based data sources, Web services, and enterprise applications.

BEA and IBM also published a pair of application programming interfaces. One is designed to let applications based on J2EE schedule work to execute concurrently, and the other supports the scheduling and receipt of timer notifications.