Widening the JVM Languages Group: We Need You!

We need diversity in the JVM Languages group, and it's been brought to my attention that some popular/key/interesting languages may not have representation. So we need to change that.

If you are interested in the future of non-Java languages on the JVM, you should be on this list. Yes, we talk about a lot of JVM language implementation challenges, we discuss compilers and stack frames and call-site optimizations, but we also talk about features peripheral to language implementation like package indexing and retrofitting Java 5+ code. We need your help.

Once you've joined, or if you're already member, you have a second task

I respectfully request that each of you search out one individual you think would be interested in the list and try to get them involved. Toss them a quick email, invite them to describe their project or language or implementation to us, and promise them they're joining a very interesting and entertaining community. History will thank you, and so will I.

A Business Case for Supporting Jython

The facts:

• Sun and many other organizations have started considering moves to Mercurial. In Sun's case, it's a mandate for all Sun-managed OSS projects (OpenSolaris, OpenJDK, etc).
• Moving projects to Mercurial frequently (usually?) requires IDE/tool support.
  
• Sun's IDE/tools and those of many other organizations are Java-based (NetBeans, Eclipse, and so on).
• Mercurial is written in Python.
• Jython is an implementation of Python for the JVM.

Therefore, Jython Mercurial support would be an excellent vector to Mercurial adoption within Java organizations (Sun included, I'd wager). Corollary: getting Mercurial running on Jython is an excellent business case for contributing time and resources to Jython.

Put simply: if you want to become an OSS rockstar tomorrow, get Mercurial running on Jython.

(credit for this idea goes to OpenJDK ambassador Tom Marble...I'm just trying to needle the OSS world into making it happen)