It is with great joy (and relief) that I see that Spring finally has seen the light and made a tighter coupling between definition (formerly only to be found in hardly readable XML files) and the Pojo. I was a firm believer that one of the greatest disadvantages of Spring (pre 2.5 that is) was the fact that the
Java code was detached from one of the most influencial part regarding its behaviour (the XML which wired the components). Although I can see a valid point of those who say that this gives the framework the additional flexibility (e.g. to provide a separate test- and production-setup). In my view the disadvantages (wondering whether I had setup the configuration correctly, having to simultaneously view XML and Java, the additional maintenance) didn't weigh up to the advantages. However, these disadvantages have been reduced significantly.
Now for my questions:
- In what direction will the Spring framework be developed after 3.0 in the view of the author?
- What will the effect of the ever stronger growing
EJB framework be on Spring and will Spring continue to add any added value besides supporting a large installed base?
- What licencing structure will Spring be available under? In the past this used to be a more or less GPL-typed licence.
