Hi Dave, et al.
I've been using the JDBC driver for many years and have followed this
list for a great number as well. Firstly I'd like to thank Dave and the
other lead developers for their work for which without their wouldn't be
a java driver.
I too have a few comments that I hope you don't mind me sharing:
I would have to agree that sometimes it does feel like the project is
like a clique than an open source project, I've witnessed and partially
been involved with suggestions for which it feels are either ignored or
quashed from on high. I fully understand the need to maintain stability
and that the driver is used by many large corporations/projects, but I
don't feel this should be a limit to change or expansion.
One example of this was that of switching the project to use features of
a newer JDK version - 1.4 to 1.5 from memory, which given JDK6 has just
been discontinued seems hard to believe. I think these kind of
discussions are going to be (and have been) more common as people
require features of the newer specs (both JDK and JDBC). Given the
project is relatively stable with very few bug fixes (and usually minor
at that), it would seem possible to freeze the "old" versions and only
backport serious bugs (if at all) - but I digess and this is left as
another topic of discussion.
Is there a formal process for submitting patches, I've believe it is
that diffs should be submitted to the list? Unfortunately personal
experience tells me that this doesn't seem to work as planned...
I feel it is a combination of these 2 that causes people (myself
included) to fork the project for personal projects. It would be nice if
these "personal" features could be re-integrated back into the main so
that everyone can benefit.
John