Chris and Nick:
The most robust system we have around is the universe we live in, and it works in the simplest possible way. In other words, the laws of nature are in their simplest possible form (note that simple does not always mean easy) and almost all scientists will agree with me on that. To that end, I'm excited about EJB 3.0 because its main purpos is to "improve the EJB architecture by reducing its complexity from the developer's point of view" and I assume that by "reducing complexity" they mean simplifying :-).
"Simpliication" in software often means automation, abstraction, and standardization. But we pay for all the advantages of "simplification" in losing flexibility, and optimizations for specific environments. So it's very tricky to strike a balance.
As much I'm excited about EJB 3.0, there is quite a bit of "simplification" in there. It's always a good idea to maintain a healthy skepticism to see how it's going to play out. Then, there are some side questions: who'll be running the Java show three years from now? What other technologies may emerge by then? So right now, instead of wishing for more "simplification", I would rather like to sit down with the Spring folks to see if we could vision some kind of unification here :-).
Regards.
Paul
Book website
www.manning.com/sanghera
Paul Sanghera, Ph.D.<br />SCBCD, SCJP, Project+, Network+, Linux+, CNA.