Thirty years ago, Java was born, revolutionizing the way developers created and managed open source software. Founder of Sonatype and Maven Central steward Brian Fox credits Java with democratizing open source development by introducing modularity and portability through its ARchive (JAR) files and Maven’s dependency management.
Prior to Java’s emergence in 1995, incorporating open source code into projects was a daunting task due to the complexity of dependencies. However, Java simplified this process, allowing developers to understand and manage complex web of dependencies with Maven. This led to transformative impact, enabling a generation of developers to contribute to open source projects.
Today, modern programming languages’ ecosystems are influenced by Java’s concepts. Fox notes that JavaScript (npm), Python (pip), .NET (NuGet), and Ruby (gem) borrowed from Java and Maven’s pioneering work. However, the exception is Go, which struggled with competing standards until it centered on a single package manager.
Maven Central, operated by Sonatype, hosts over 671,000 open source projects, growing by 7% year-over-year, while downloads surged 36% in the past year. This sustained growth sets Java apart from specialized languages like Python, JavaScript, and Go. Fox emphasizes that Java’s maturity advantage and security through established standards make it a hard act to follow.
As Java enters its fourth decade, predictions of its demise continue. However, Fox remains optimistic, stating that something will eventually replace Java. He speculates that the next major shift might not be a new human-readable language but rather AI-generated code. Looking back at Java’s three decades, Fox considers it a watershed moment in programming history, establishing patterns for virtually every modern language.
Source: https://thenewstack.io/how-java-sparked-an-open-source-revolution-30-years-ago