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| WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. |
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| <!-- |
| // ======================================================================== 78 |
| --> |
| <document> |
| |
| <properties> |
| <title>Who We Are</title> |
| </properties> |
| |
| <body> |
| <section name="Who We Are"> |
| |
| <a name="statistics"/> |
| <subsection name="List Subscribers and Downloads"> |
| |
| <p>In July 2005, there were more than 2800 subscribers to |
| STRUTS-USER (including the digest version). In addition to |
| the |
| regular subscribers, an unknown number of developers read |
| the lists |
| through newsfeed mirrors and through several list |
| archives.</p> |
| |
| <p>According to recently released |
| <a href="http://www.apache.org/~vgritsenko/stats/projects/struts"> |
| statistics</a> |
| , Struts downloads range around 15,000 a month. |
| </p> |
| </subsection> |
| |
| <a name="pmc"/> |
| <subsection name="Project Management Committee Members"> |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <strong>Craig R. McClanahan</strong> |
| (craigmcc at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <strong>Ted Husted</strong> |
| (husted at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <strong>Cedric Dumoulin</strong> |
| (cedric.dumoulin at lifl.fr) |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <strong>Martin Cooper</strong> |
| , Vice President and Chair |
| (martinc at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <strong>James Holmes</strong> |
| (jholmes at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <strong>David M. Karr</strong> |
| (dmkarr at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <strong>David Graham</strong> |
| (dgraham at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <strong>James Mitchell</strong> |
| (jmitchell at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <strong>Don Brown</strong> |
| (mrdon at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <strong>Joe Germuska</strong> |
| (germuska at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <strong>Niall Pemberton</strong> |
| (niallp at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <strong>Hubert Rabago</strong> |
| (hrabago at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| <strong>Wendy Smoak</strong> |
| (wsmoak at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </subsection> |
| |
| <a name="committers"/> |
| <subsection name="Committers"> |
| <ul> |
| |
| <li> |
| <strong>Eddie Bush</strong> |
| (ekbush at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <strong>David Geary</strong> |
| (dgeary at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <strong>Gary VanMatre</strong> |
| (gvanmatre at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <strong>Sean Schofield</strong> |
| (schof at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <strong>Greg Reddin</strong> |
| (greddin at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <strong>Laurie Harper</strong> |
| (laurieh at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <strong>Richard Feit</strong> |
| (rich at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <strong>Jason Carreira</strong> |
| (jcarreira at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <strong>Patrick Lightbody</strong> |
| (plightbo at apache.org) |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </subsection> |
| |
| <a name="emeritus"/> |
| <subsection name="Emeritus Committers"> |
| <ul> |
| <li>Luis Arias</li> |
| |
| <li>Pierre Delilse</li> |
| |
| <li>Michael Schachter</li> |
| |
| <li>Vincent Massol</li> |
| |
| <li>David Winterfeldt</li> |
| |
| <li>Oleg Alexeev</li> |
| |
| <li>Rob Leland</li> |
| |
| <li>Arron Bates</li> |
| |
| <li>Steve Raeburn</li> |
| |
| <li>James Turner</li> |
| |
| </ul> |
| </subsection> |
| |
| <a name="about"/> |
| <subsection name="More About Us"> |
| <h4 id="craigmcc">Craig R. McClanahan -- PMC Member</h4> |
| |
| <p> |
| I've been involved with servlet and JSP technology since |
| around |
| 1998. It started out that I needed a way to build some web |
| applications for several projects, and liked Java a lot |
| better |
| than the alternatives. I also liked the price tag of open |
| source |
| software, and started using Apache JServ -- later, getting |
| involved in the project (like many people, I was whining |
| about |
| the twelve months it took to get from version 0.9 to |
| version |
| 1.0, and my son said "Dad, you know Java -- go help them |
| finish |
| it!" -- so I did :-).</p> |
| |
| <p> |
| For quite a while, I was participating a lot the |
| JSP-INTEREST and |
| SERVLET-INTEREST |
| <a href="http://archives.java.sun.com">mailing lists</a> |
| , |
| especially the topic of good architectures for web |
| applications. |
| I was disgusted with the hash that many beginners created |
| when |
| they used (or abused) scriptlets in JSP pages, and built |
| (for my |
| former employer) a pretty comprehensive framework that |
| could |
| considered ("Struts 0.01 without the custom tags"). It was |
| proprietary code, but I was able to describe the concepts, |
| and |
| there started to a feeling the lists that this "Model 2" |
| thing |
| was pretty cool -- but there were no good examples to look |
| at, |
| so it was mostly hand waving types of discussions. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Over the same time period, I got involved as an individual |
| contributor in the |
| <a href="http://java.sun.com/jcp">Java |
| Community Process</a> |
| , and joined the expert group that defined |
| the servlet 2.2 and JSP 1.1 specs. Sun was impressed |
| enough to |
| offer me a job as the technical lead the team within Sun |
| (currently five other individuals) that works |
| <a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat">Tomcat</a> |
| -- the |
| architecture for Catalina, which is the servlet container |
| part |
| of Tomcat 4.0, is also mine -- so I am in the really nice |
| position of getting paid to work open source software :-). |
| And, |
| participate the expert groups for Servlet 2.3 and JSP 1.2. |
| And, |
| speak at various conferences, including ApacheCon and |
| JavaOne. |
| And, talk to groups within Sun about using Struts and |
| JSP/servlet technology. And ... (there's some really |
| interesting |
| things being considered for the future). |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| The original design of what came to Struts has been in my |
| head |
| for a long time, since those interesting mailing list |
| discussions, but the first version of the actual code was |
| written my laptop a Memorial Day weekend vacation trip |
| (end of |
| May, 2000) to the Oregon coast -- in between watching the |
| surf |
| and having the house shaken by a windstorm at night. Since |
| then, |
| it has gathered attention and popularity as we approach |
| our |
| first official release, and it delights me to see my |
| "baby" grow |
| up so well :-). Of course, it is no longer just me -- |
| there have |
| been incredible numbers of good ideas from all over, and a |
| peek |
| at the TODO list for 1.1 says that even more good stuff is |
| coming in the future. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| One motivation factor was |
| <a href="http://www.servlets.com/soapbox/problems-jsp.html"> |
| Jason Hunter's</a> |
| article about the Problems with JSP. Jason |
| and I get along fine, even though we have different |
| preferences |
| about presentation technologies. Besides being the author |
| of a |
| very popular book about servlets, with a second edition |
| coming |
| soon, Jason is also the representative for the Apache |
| Software |
| Foundation the Executive Committee of the Java Community |
| Process. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Personally, I live in Portland, Oregon (even though my |
| team at |
| Sun is mostly in Cupertino, CA -- staying here was part of |
| the |
| job deal :-). I like to support Oregon sports teams |
| (Oregon |
| State Beavers, Oregon Ducks, Portland Trailblazers) and |
| work |
| cool software. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| I figured out I was getting pretty old when I realized |
| that |
| 2000 was the 25th year I had been paid to work in some |
| aspect of |
| software development :-). I've got a son who is a |
| full-time |
| software developer (primarily in PHP so far, but I'm going |
| to |
| corrupt him with Java eventually :-), and a daughter in |
| college. |
| I'll happily let the other committers speak for |
| themselves. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h4 id="mschachter">Mike Schachter -- Emeritus Committer</h4> |
| |
| <p> |
| I'm currently a student of computer science at Drexel |
| University |
| in Philadelphia, PA. I've been working at HP Middleware, |
| formerly Bluestone Software for 3 years programming in |
| Java and |
| recently J2EE technologies. I'm a full time worker from |
| September until April and a student and part time worker |
| from |
| April until August. In my spare time I've been known to |
| run |
| monkey-knife fights in a shady south philly warehouse. |
| Err... I |
| mean... nothing. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h4 id="husted">Ted Husted -- PMC Member</h4> |
| |
| <p> |
| In the late 1990s, I was working with a local PBS station |
| to |
| improve their web presence. Like most stations, WXXI had |
| an |
| annual fundraising auction. Each year, we would do a |
| little more |
| for the auction. At first, we posted a few static pages |
| about |
| the "big ticket" items. The next year, we accepted |
| "pre-bids" |
| on the more expensive items, using a JavaScript |
| application. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Then, late in 1999, the CEO decided we should do a lot |
| more with the auction |
| on the website. The next big step would be to accept bids |
| for |
| all items online. A colleague recommended FileMaker Pro, |
| and we |
| went to work automating the bid-taking process. For |
| "Spring MarketPlace 2000", we entered the telephone bids |
| into |
| computers in the studio, and Internet users could enter |
| their |
| own bids directly. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| The system worked, but we ran into some walls that were |
| difficult to work around. We also wanted to expand the |
| system to do scheduling and inventory as well as bid |
| taking. |
| So, I started looking for a new platform. I came close to |
| selecting PHP, but there were some cool new Java products, |
| like Resin and Jetty, coming out in 2000. I was impressed |
| and |
| decided to go with Java. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| At the time, web application frameworks for Java were a |
| new |
| idea, and only a couple were available. |
| I stumbled upon Struts at Jakarta, and started posting |
| questions to the list. At first, the list traffic was so |
| low, |
| I wasn't sure if the group was still active. But, answers |
| came, and so I kept on posting. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| To help teach myself the framework, I started a "walking |
| tour" of the infamous MailReader application. I posted the |
| tour as I wrote it, and people kindly corrected my |
| understanding of how things worked as I went. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| In December 2000, Craig was asking for volunteers to help |
| with the documentation. Mike Schachter and I raised our |
| virtual hands, we became Struts committers 006 and 007. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| By the Spring of 2001, WXXI's new auction application was |
| ready |
| to ship using the Struts 1.0 beta. We took over 50,000 |
| bids on |
| 5,000 items with nary a hitch. We added an inventory |
| module |
| for 2002, and the station continued to use the original |
| software unchanged through 2005. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Since joining Struts in 2000, I've become a Member of the |
| Apache |
| Software Foundation and Struts Project Management |
| Committee. My |
| books include JUnit in Action, Struts in Action, and |
| Professional JSP Site Design. I've consulted with Struts |
| teams |
| throughout the United States, including CitiGroup, |
| Nationwide |
| Insurance, and the Pepsi Bottling Group. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Currently, I'm working with the Oklahoma State |
| Department of Environmental Services to improve their |
| permitting |
| system. We started the work in Java, but the enterprise |
| migrated to ASP.NET in 2004. Rather than quit the team, |
| I stuck it out. We are now working on a Struts subproject |
| for |
| ASP.NET called OverDrive. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h4 id="cedric">Cedric Dumoulin -- PMC Member</h4> |
| |
| <p> |
| As a dreamer / researcher I have thought a lot about a |
| framework |
| like Struts. But, as a lazy developer I have first checked |
| what |
| already exists, and I have found Struts. Struts goals |
| fulfilled |
| nearly all I needed for my (now old) portal project, |
| except the |
| capability to reuse and assemble easily pieces of pages or |
| components. So, I have proposed the Components framework. |
| This |
| framework can seen as a superset of the Templates tag |
| library |
| contributed by David Geary, and contains lot of |
| interesting |
| features. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| From a professional point of view, I have a Ph.D. in |
| computer |
| science. I have worked for 3 years in the R&D |
| department of |
| a worldwide company developing Internet banking solutions. |
| I am now a researcher at a university, and work European |
| research projects. My main research interest is WWW, |
| Distributed |
| Systems and Object Oriented Design. When developing code, |
| I |
| always try to first propose reusable pieces of code. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h4 id="martinc">Martin Cooper -- PMC Chair</h4> |
| |
| <p> |
| Early in the year 2000, I was asked, by my employer at |
| that time, |
| to investigate the best way to develop a new web-based |
| application |
| for the administration and management of an existing |
| product. |
| After exploring a number of technologies, I settled on |
| Java, along |
| with servlets and JSP, as the way to go. Then I started |
| looking |
| for methodologies and "best practices", since others must |
| surely |
| have been down that path before me. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| In addition to rummaging around on the web, I subscribed |
| to the |
| SERVLET-INTEREST and JSP-INTEREST mailing lists, along |
| with |
| several others, and monitored the discussions for a while. |
| It was |
| clear that others were seeking the same answers as I was, |
| and it |
| was also clear that many people were building their |
| applications |
| in truly horrible ways. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| At some point -- I don't recall when, exactly -- the |
| concept of |
| "Model 1" versus "Model 2" applications came up, and there |
| was a |
| great deal of discussion around that. Model 2 seemed very |
| much |
| like A Good Thing to me, and I paid it close attention. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Then, in May of 2000, I saw a message from Craig |
| McClanahan |
| about a new framework called Struts that was designed to |
| ease |
| the process of building Model 2 applications, and provide |
| solutions for some of the important issues at the same |
| time. I |
| hopped on over to the web site and took a look around. |
| This was |
| exactly what I had been looking for. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| My first postings to the Struts mailing list were, of |
| course, |
| questions to help me understand how to do things and why |
| Struts |
| is the way it is. Over time, I became more involved in |
| both the |
| user and developer communities, started submitting bug |
| reports, |
| patches and change requests, and eventually became a |
| committer. |
| Not long after that, I volunteered to take on the release |
| process, |
| and became the release manager for Struts 1.0.1 and |
| beyond. Little |
| did I know what I was letting myself in for! |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| A large majority of the people who contribute to Apache |
| projects |
| are volunteers who are not paid for their contributions. |
| Like most |
| of those volunteers, I also have a "day job" to put bread |
| on the |
| table. Currently, I am a UI Architect at Informatica, |
| where I work |
| on the architecture, design and implementation of web |
| applications. |
| Working with, and on, Struts has provided me with an |
| excellent |
| perspective with which to do that! |
| </p> |
| |
| <h4 id="dwinterfeldt">David Winterfeldt -- Emeritus |
| Committer</h4> |
| |
| <p> |
| As I worked web based projects I started looking for |
| something |
| that would really help save time during development. I ran |
| across Struts in the Summer of 2000 and decided it was a |
| good |
| solution for web development. As I used Struts it really |
| helped |
| to remove a lot of the repetitive work, but validation |
| still |
| seemed very repetitive. I had an idea to create validation |
| rules |
| in an xml file and have them easily integrated with |
| Struts. It |
| started out simple and continued to develop over time. The |
| validation project was eventually incorporated into Struts |
| and |
| the core was moved to Jakarta Commons. I'm happy to see |
| Struts |
| continue to grow and develop.</p> |
| |
| <p> |
| I currently am employed at Forbes.com. I occasionally get |
| to do |
| some internal projects using Struts. The last interesting |
| project was a publishing system using Message Driven EJBs |
| in |
| JBoss and Struts was used to display the status of each |
| publishing process. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h4 id="rleland">Rob Leland -- Emeritus PMC Member</h4> |
| |
| <p> |
| I have gone from Unix -to- Windows -to- Unix based |
| development |
| about ever 6 years now. When moving to Windows I was |
| amazed at |
| how primitive the OS was compared to Unix. While |
| developing for |
| Win32 I had the pleasure of discovering Delphi and |
| developed |
| many GUI/databases, telephony, Internet enabled |
| applications. I |
| remain impressed with its design. Delphi, always enabled |
| development of a simple elegant solution, much like the |
| language |
| itself. I was convinced after 10 years of development with |
| C/C++ |
| that it was a kinder gentler language. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Then in July 2000 I decided to move into Java, and Web |
| development. This is after using the Internet since 1985 |
| and |
| occasionally teaching classes about it. I was hired as a |
| consultant to take over a JSP based application. I |
| realized it |
| had been written with the equivalent of "goto's"(Model 1) |
| and |
| had to be redesigned. I searched for a better way to |
| design the |
| code and by late August I had found Struts. It is also a |
| simple |
| elegant solution. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| To date I have mainly served to pitch in where needed. I |
| continue to amazed at the Struts committers' generous |
| contributions of time, insight, and good will. I feel |
| fortunate |
| to part of the struts team. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h4 id="dgraham">David Graham -- PMC Member</h4> |
| |
| <p> |
| I, like many others, discovered Struts when contemplating |
| writing my own MVC Java framework for the web. Struts had |
| everything I needed and more so I scrapped plans for my |
| own and |
| joined the mailing lists. After playing with it for |
| several |
| months I started submitting documentation and a few source |
| patches. I'm excited about helping Struts evolve and am |
| continually amazed by the framework and the community |
| surrounding it. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h4 id="jmitchell">James Mitchell -- PMC Member</h4> |
| |
| <p> |
| Struts was forced upon me when the E-Commerce |
| sweat-shop...errr |
| ...I mean "the company I worked for" decided to go from |
| being a |
| full fledged Microsoft Partner to a full J2EE shop. That |
| was |
| back in 2000. What little skills in Java I had were poor |
| at |
| best and I had never heard of Struts or even Tomcat for |
| that |
| matter. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| I was fortunate to have several excellent mentors watching |
| over |
| my shoulder and helping our team cross the "great divide" |
| between ASP/COM and Java/OOP. You could say our mentors |
| knew a |
| thing or two about Java, web development, and frameworks |
| in |
| general. Chuck Cavaness, Brian Keeton, and many more, I |
| cannot |
| thank you enough for all the leadership and guidance you |
| have |
| given me (and others). I truly believe that without your |
| help, |
| I would not be where I am today. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Where am I today? That depends on who you ask ;) I own my |
| own |
| business and I am currently working for a clientin the |
| North |
| Atlanta (GA) area. I created the |
| <a href="http://www.struts-atlanta.org">Struts-Atlanta |
| Users |
| Group</a> |
| along with James Holmes several years ago with the |
| primary goal of mentoring, educating, and assisting other |
| developers.We are a large group (over 200 members) of |
| Struts |
| enthusiasts and we meet monthly to discuss just about |
| anything, |
| not just Struts.I don't want this to sound like a resume, |
| but if |
| you are looking for talent, I have helped several of our |
| membersfind jobs in our area. Our list is a great resource |
| for |
| finding and nurturing local talent. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| I call myself an "Open Source Evangelist" for a reason. I |
| use |
| the word "Evangelist" because that's what I feel I am |
| doing. |
| Just as Martin Luther was considered a rebel in his day, I |
| too |
| hope to make a change. I hope to change the way Software |
| is |
| developed in our world and how the lack of collaboration |
| for |
| the sake of "intellectual property" is inhibiting the |
| growth of |
| our economy. I believe businesses have a right to make a |
| profit. |
| I believe businesshave a right to make a profit on their |
| "intellectual property", but for heaven's sake, some |
| wheels |
| don't needto be reinvented 50,000 times. Where I draw the |
| line |
| is when they leverage existing market share to strong-arm |
| the |
| competition literally out of business. Based on what I |
| just |
| wrote and depending on what you've been exposed to in your |
| career, you might be thinking of one company right now. |
| You are |
| probably right in your assumption, but believe me, there |
| are |
| many companies that practice the same, or worsetechniques. |
| To |
| them, it's not about playing on a level playing field, |
| it's |
| about getting to the game early,buying 80% of the seats, |
| and |
| paying off the officials so there is little chance for any |
| real |
| competition. Ofcourse, for some companies, it doesn't hurt |
| if |
| you own the stadium and keep the other players locked out. |
| "Well, they were invited to compete, but they didn't show |
| up. |
| "....sound familiar? |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Enter....the Open Source movement. I would encourage you |
| (if |
| you haven't already) to pick up a copy of |
| <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596001088/102-8250064-5792120"> |
| The Cathedral and the Bazaar</a> |
| .This is an excellent |
| introduction to this whole "Open Source" thing and why it |
| is so |
| popular. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Compared to what I want to do in life, Struts is just a |
| drop in |
| the pond. However, that said, I am very happy and excited |
| to be |
| a part of this (and other) open source projects. Thanks |
| for |
| putting up with me :P |
| </p> |
| |
| <h4 id="jturner">James Turner -- Emeritus Committer</h4> |
| |
| <p> |
| I discovered Struts somewhat by accident. In 2001 I began |
| writing a book for SAMS on JSP web development (MySQL and |
| JSP |
| Web Development), and as part of it, I decided to write a |
| chapter on Struts in the advanced section. In the process |
| of |
| learning enough about Struts to write about it, I realized |
| that |
| it could simplify some of the projects that I was working |
| on for |
| clients. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| After a half a year of working with Struts, I was asked by |
| SAMS |
| to write another book, this time concentrating on Struts |
| specifically. That book, co-authored with a former |
| co-worker n |
| amed Kevin Bedell, became Struts Kick Start. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| In the process of writing that book, I began to realize |
| that |
| there were things I could do to contribute to Struts |
| beyond |
| writing about it. One thing in particular was to clean up |
| and |
| add some functionality to the Commons Validator project, |
| which |
| eventually led to me release-managing (with a lot of |
| help!) the |
| Commons Validator 1.0 release. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| More generally, I've been a software developer for over 22 |
| years, starting with work as a Research Specialist at the |
| MIT AI |
| Lab. I spent nearly a decade working in LISP, before |
| moving on |
| to C/Unix, a stint managing the Web Site for the Christian |
| Science Monitor, and finally Java based e-Commerce |
| development, |
| which has kept me busy for the last five years. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| In addition to the two books mentioned above, I also write |
| for a |
| number of publications, including WIRED and the |
| aforementioned |
| Christian Science Monitor. You can get a look at my |
| portfolio |
| <a href="http://www.blackbear.com/monitor.html">here</a> |
| . I'm |
| also working on a third book with a bunch of other folks |
| for |
| O'Reilly, which will cover Apache Axis. I also edit the |
| OpenSolaris.org site for Sun. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h4 id="ekbush">Eddie Bush -- Committer</h4> |
| |
| <p> |
| My first experiences with Java made me wince. The language |
| was young-ish still and growing by leaps and bounds all |
| the time. |
| To me, it seemed unintelligent to invest any significant |
| intellectual resources in learning it because I perceived |
| it as |
| such a "moving target". Of course, that has |
| changed. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| I'd been looking for a way to really do heavy-duty |
| processing of |
| web requests that was higher-level than CGI. In |
| particular, I |
| was on a quest to find somethiong that did not involve |
| using |
| Microsoft (tm) technologies. A friend of mine started |
| chatting up the idea of Java servlets and JSP pages. I |
| didn't |
| really like the idea of using Java because of my |
| previously |
| formed opinion, but, having a great deal of respect for my |
| friend's opinion, I set out on an exursion to delve into |
| the |
| world of Java-driven dynamic web page generation. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| The language (and myself) had matured considerably by this |
| time, |
| and I found my previous inhibitions were no longer well |
| founded. |
| However, as much as I liked the technology, I was |
| dissatisfied. |
| There just had to be a better way! I loved the concept of |
| having a controller servlet, but, lacking experience in |
| building |
| externally-configurable Java "thingies", I was |
| hard-coding a lot, and, after a point, that started to |
| really |
| rub me wrong. At this point, I started buying books and |
| really |
| "studying" the technology more seriously. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| I honestly don't recall where I stumbled onto Struts, but |
| I do |
| recall having toyed with a number of different frameworks |
| - none |
| of which I really recall now. I quickly fell in love with |
| Struts -- partially because it was an Apache project, and |
| partially because it was evident to me that the project |
| had a |
| really great user-base. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| As time rocked along, I found myself becoming more deeply |
| involved in the project. I studied the source and learned |
| a |
| great deal about architecting configurable Java |
| "thingies", and learned a fantastic amount about |
| actually using the framework. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| In time, I got comfortable enough with how Struts was |
| structured |
| that I began submitting patches - mostly documentation, |
| which |
| Ted Husted "massaged" and applied. I enjoyed the |
| feeling of gratification I got from helping to make Struts |
| better, even if minorly. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| My last patch submitted as a non-committer was for |
| ActionServlet. |
| This was back when Struts 1.1 was working toward GA |
| release. It |
| was the first patch I hadn't had applied within a few days |
| of |
| submission and I grew impatient. Modules did not work |
| properly |
| without it and they did with it! "How can they not |
| apply |
| that patch when it's so critical to Struts?" I |
| thought to |
| myself. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Well, to keep this book from becoming a novel, I started a |
| campaign to have the patch applied which resulted in |
| my gaining committer status and applying the patch myself! |
| I should note that Steve Ditlinger and myself collaborated |
| on the |
| patch. I submitted a version, he made some suggestions and |
| submitted an altered patch, and then we, collectively, |
| decided |
| to make a couple of other modifications, which I applied |
| just |
| before committing the patch. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h4 id="niallp">Niall Pemberton -- PMC Member</h4> |
| <p> |
| I've worked as a developer since 1988 using various |
| technologies/platforms. |
| In the late nineties I kept meaning to learn java but |
| never found the time |
| until 2000. I bought a couple of books (Java in 30 Days |
| and a Certification |
| Study Guide), passed the Sun certification exam and got my |
| first java job. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| Early in 2001 I was investigating writing the first web |
| app for the company |
| I was working for and came across Struts - just before the |
| 1.0 beta was |
| released. After a while I came off the user list because |
| of the volume of |
| traffic and just monitored the developers list. Late in |
| 2003 I migrated to |
| Struts 1.1, re-joined the user list and started submitting |
| a few patches. |
| Was invited to become a Struts Committer in May 2004 and |
| PMC member in |
| September 2004. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h4 id="hrabago">Hubert Rabago -- PMC Member</h4> |
| <p> |
| I started working with Java early in 2000. We designed and |
| implemented a |
| servlet-based application that to this day gives me and a |
| fellow designer |
| the urge to do a total rewrite. On my next assignment, |
| somebody |
| introduced me to a series of patterns useful for web |
| applications. We |
| built a framework using these patterns and it worked out |
| well for us. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| When I tried to bring this framework into the next |
| project, somebody |
| suggested using Struts instead. The two frameworks |
| resembled each other |
| so closely that we had no trouble at all switching. One of |
| the things |
| missing in Struts was an easy way to do redirects with |
| parameters, so we |
| wrote our own class for that. The same guy who suggested |
| Struts |
| suggested I contribute it to Struts. A few months after |
| that, I joined |
| the mailing lists and sought how to contribute. |
| </p> |
| <p> |
| I found myself enjoying answering questions on the user |
| list. After some |
| time, I was participating on the dev list as well. Soon I |
| was able to |
| contribute a few patches and even came up with my own |
| Struts extension. |
| In February of 2005, I accepted an invitation to be a |
| committer, and |
| in July 2005, accepted an invitation to join the PMC. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h4 id="wsmoak">Wendy Smoak -- PMC Member</h4> |
| |
| <p>In late 2001, I was asked to put information from a |
| database on |
| the web, including a few forms to allow updates. By that |
| time I had |
| been working with Java for a couple of years in class |
| projects, but |
| "Servlet" was still a foreign word. With no real deadline |
| and |
| complete freedom to pick anything I wanted, I spent hours |
| online |
| searching and participating in different forums and lists. |
| And any |
| time I asked for advice using 'Java' and 'HTML forms' in |
| the same |
| sentence, I got a resounding chorus of "Struts!" in |
| reply.</p> |
| |
| <p>That first webapp went through quite a few iterations as I |
| tried |
| and discarded various things. But I kept coming back to |
| Struts, and |
| eventually things fell into place-- thanks mostly to the |
| helpful |
| community on the struts-user list. As I gained more |
| experience, |
| asking questions on the user list naturally transformed |
| into |
| answering them, which I've been doing ever since. I |
| accepted an |
| invitation to become a Struts Committer in June, 2005, and |
| was invited to join the PMC in December, 2005.</p> |
| |
| <h4 id="gvanmatre">Gary VanMatre -- Committer</h4> |
| |
| <p>I landed an internship in college working with the big blue |
| iron where |
| I dappled in the craft of VSE COBOL and JCL. Through the |
| 90's, I worked my |
| way into several client-server technologies (Visual Basic, |
| PowerBuilder and Delphi) |
| and finally thought that I had learned the last |
| programming language I |
| would ever need to know, Forté Transactional Object |
| Oriented language (TOOL).</p> |
| |
| <p>I rode the Forté wave for several years and suddenly |
| found myself |
| looking for work and feeling like a real "tool". An empty, |
| dust free |
| self was just the right size for the proprietary |
| distributed object |
| solution once called Forté.</p> |
| |
| <p>In 2002, is when I found Java. While working a VB |
| assignment, |
| I decided the only hope I had of getting a competitive |
| edge was to |
| become a Sun Certified Java Programmer. With that card, I |
| found an |
| opportunity to become a Struts developer and began lurking |
| about the |
| Struts mailing lists in 2003.</p> |
| |
| <p>In late 2004, I started hearing a buzz about a new Struts |
| subproject |
| and became very interested in the ideas. I also began |
| acquiring a stack |
| of JSF books matching my Struts collection. My experience |
| with Struts, |
| Tiles and something that Colorado Department of State |
| calls Rustts, gave |
| me the idea that has become known as the Shale "Clay" |
| plug-in. I was |
| invited to become a Struts Committer in July 2005.</p> |
| |
| <h4 id="schof">Sean Schofield -- Committer</h4> |
| |
| <p>During a job interview in 2002 I was asked if I had any |
| experience with |
| Struts. I told the interviewer that I had never heard of |
| it. That night |
| when I got home I set out to figure out what Struts was |
| all about. It |
| turns out I already knew it (sort of.) I had been spending |
| a lot of time |
| researching design patterns and I was working with my own |
| custom framework |
| that combined several patterns that I thought worked well |
| together.</p> |
| |
| <p>I then realized that I wasn't the only one trying to |
| improve the way in |
| which complex web applications were being designed. Of |
| course, as with all |
| open source projects, the result of several minds working |
| together is superior |
| to that of a single mind working alone. I quickly |
| abandoned my custom |
| framework in favor of Struts. A few years later I was the |
| one interviewing |
| people asking them if they knew Struts!</p> |
| |
| <p>Struts was also the beginning of my serious interest in |
| open source. Like |
| many other committers I started out as a user, then became |
| a participant on |
| the mailing lists, then started reporting bugs, then |
| started patching bugs and |
| finally started proposing and supplying new features. The |
| Struts community |
| was an invaluable resource for me, especially when it came |
| to getting advice on |
| tricky design issues.</p> |
| |
| <p>In October 2005 I was invited to become a Struts Committer. |
| I have also been |
| involved in a few other open source projects including |
| commons-lang and |
| commons-chain. I am also a PMC member of the MyFaces |
| project where I spend |
| most of my free time these days. My current interest in |
| Struts lies with the |
| Shale subproject.</p> |
| |
| <h4 id="greddin">Greg Reddin -- Committer</h4> |
| |
| <p>In early 2000 I was working on a client-server application |
| that |
| was written in Visual Basic and C++. The decision was made |
| to |
| rebuild the application as a web-based app using Java and |
| JSP. We |
| bought into the MVC architecture and implemented it using |
| Sun's |
| Blueprints with a JSP front controller. Then one of our |
| architects |
| came back from JavaOne raving about Struts. From that |
| point on |
| there was no turning back for me.</p> |
| |
| <p>Over the years my involvement has come in spurts. If I was |
| working on a web-based project it was a given that this |
| project |
| would involve Struts. Finally, our organization was bitten |
| by the |
| SOA bug so it was "webapp no more" for a while. But I |
| never |
| bothered to unsubscribe from the Struts lists and always |
| kept one |
| ear tuned in to the chatter in my inbox.</p> |
| |
| <p>Finally I decided to plant myself back in the web tier with |
| or |
| without my employer's support and changed jobs. Very soon |
| afterwards, in October 2005, I was invited to become a |
| Struts |
| committer. This comes at a time when Tiles, my favorite |
| part of |
| Struts, is seeing a lot of activity. I hope to play a |
| large part |
| in digging the Standalone version out of the sandbox. I am |
| also |
| very interested in JSF, Shale, content management systems, |
| and |
| portals.</p> |
| |
| <p>The truth is I still haven't decided what I want to be when |
| I |
| grow up. In addition to my software pursuits I am also a |
| <a href="http://www.reddin.org">family man</a> |
| and a |
| <a href="http://www.fattuesdayaudio.com">musician</a> |
| . If anyone |
| knows of any good methods of cloning yourself, please let |
| me know! |
| I'm happy to be a part of this community and the Apache |
| Way. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h4 id="laurieh">Laurie Harper -- Committer</h4> |
| |
| <p>I've been lurking on the fringes of the Struts project for |
| years, on and off, but it wasn't until early 2005 that I |
| became an active participant. I founded |
| <a href="http://www.zotechsoftware.com/">Zotech |
| Software</a> |
| and selected Struts as the framework on which we would |
| build |
| our first product. I thought long and hard about how to |
| give |
| back to the Open Source community from whose work we would |
| derive so much value, and decided that one important |
| contribution I could make would be to answer questions on |
| the Struts user list, among others. Over time, I found |
| myself |
| wanting to add bits and pieces to Struts itself, and began |
| submitting patches. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p>In October 2005 I was invited to become a committer. My |
| main interests lie with the core Struts framework and |
| supporting |
| sub-projects, though I'm keeping an eye on Ti and some of |
| the |
| other experimental work that's going on.</p> |
| |
| </subsection> |
| </section> |
| </body> |
| </document> |
| |
