blog.sanium.net

I was starting to write about something technical, but...

I've had a very interesting experience with the SUN website lately.

It all started when I tried to download the JSTL files.

Naturally, I started out by searching for JSTL on Google and was redirect to SUN's official JSTL page, http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/jstl/

Clicking on the Downloads link, I find that I can't just download a simple package and be done with it, instead I receive the joy of choosing between several different implementation. I instinctively go for the ones that promise JSTL 1.1

Selecting the J2EE 1.4 SDK link, I'm appalled to find that there is, again, no simple way to just download a simple package that could be extracted to a j2ee_sdk_1.4_03 folder, but no such luck. All the available download options include some sort of IDE or application server (which is not only useless, considering that I already have 2 application servers that both perform better than the ones from SUN) http://java.sun.com/j2ee/1.4/download.html

Furthermore, right underneath the first package, are the components of its make up. It eludes me how the Sun Java System Application Server PE 8.2, JDK 5.0, Platform API Docs and Samples Bundle combine into a J2EE SDK, much less a J2EE 1.4 SDK

Back to the main JSTL page, I tried getting the Java Web Services Developer Pack (Java WSDP). Downloaded and installed it, but alas, there's no mention what-so-ever about JSTL in any of the documentation for the WSDP.

Finally, I decided to give the Jakarta Taglibs a shot, about 2 minutes later, I have an implementation of JSTL 1.1 in form of the package jakarta-taglibs-standard-1.1.2. (http://jakarta.apache.org/site/downloads/downloads_taglibs-standard.cgi)

Admittedly, I should have known to look at the apache jakarta project first, but the SUN site makes it very difficult for newcomers to locate required resources for development.

</rant>