The OSGi Corner

In 2008, I've started learning about OSGi. I like the technology because:

• it provides a nice way to componentize an application
• it has a clean class loader isolation which gets rid of problem introduced by the default hierarchical class loader structure of Java
• it forces you to properly design your applications
• it provides a highly dynamic environment where it is easy to add, update and remove components and component instance at runtime
• it is easy to enhance

Of course, there are a few hickups in practice. Not every software package can simply be used in OSGi, especially if it's not prepared to handle the dynamics. Also, a few bugs in low-level components have made life a bit hard at times. But over all, it's worth investing into.

It's time for me now to contribute a few things to this environment. I'll start with a package for handling the JAR Service Provider mechanism under OSGi and will publish more items later as time allows.

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