SUNW: Sun Opens Up NetBeans Enterprise Pack, Eclipse Not Good Enough

Tools for UML, XML and service orchestrated architectures (SOAs) will become the latest features in Sun Microsystems Java Studio Enterprise suite to be open sourced.

Sun is to release its two-way Unified Modeling Language (UML) modeler, XML infrastructure and visual editing tools, and tools to design and orchestrate business processes using Business Execution Process Language (BPEL), and build composite applications. The software, part of the planned Java Studio Enterprise 9.0, will made available for download as part of Sun's NetBeans Enterprise Pack.

By open sourcing its UML tools Sun is continuing its push against the rival Eclipse open source tools framework. The Eclipse Foundation has pushed UML and model-driven architectures for some time via the Eclipse Tools Project. The project encompasses an open source implementation of UML, called UML2, and a modeling framework and code-generation facility to build tools and applications that use a structured data model - called the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF).

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