The initiative, called Java Tools Community (JTC), will address "the future of Java tools standards development and interaction," according to an invitation sent to the media. The group will include several Java tools companies, according to Sun.
Java powerhouse IBM, however, will not be participating in the teleconference or the JTC, according to an IBM representative.
As previously reported, the JTC aims to bridge differences between Java development tools from different vendors. Java software companies are trying to make Java development easier and more productive in an effort to ward off competition from Microsoft and its successful line of .Net tools.
Executives from Sun, BEA and Oracle in November said that they and other Java tools companies have been working to create a way for developers to mix and match add-on tools, or plug-ins, between popular Java integrated development environments (IDEs). An initial standardization effort, called the Java Specification Request 198, is already addressing a common plug-in system.
Rich Green, Sun's vice president of the software developer platform, said in December that Sun and other companies hope to expand that effort in order to make it easier for Java developers to move projects between different Java IDEs.
"JSR 198 is focused on interoperability of plug-ins on the tools. I think we've got to do that and then raise the bar," Green said. "We have to ensure the interoperability of projects--the bodies of code--that developers work on, among the tools."
The common-tools effort is also seen as an alternative to Eclipse, an IBM-founded open-source Java tools effort that defines its own system, or framework, for plug-in interoperability. Eclipse, which is in the process of becoming a consortium independent from IBM, has gained nearly 50 members over the past three years.
"Eclipse wants to be the framework for all tools. Oracle disagrees with that," said Ted Farrell, chief architect and director of strategy for Oracle's tools division. "There should be a common API (application programming interface) so people can plug into all frameworks easily."
Sun in December declined an invitation to join Eclipse after several months of negotiations. Sun executives said Sun would bear too much of the burden of bridging the technical differences between Eclipse and Sun's own open-source tool technology, called NetBeans. Sun also did not want to abandon the NetBeans developer community, company executives said.
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