Sun Microsystems Inc. this week announced that the next versions of its key technologies: the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition and the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition, have been submitted to the Java Community Process program for review.

The JCP program is a community-based process for developing Java technology specifications, reference implementations and associated compatibility test suites. With this announcement, the JCP program is further strengthened as a sound and successful community-based model for evolving Java technology, a statement issued by Sun Microsystems said.

Sun submitted two Java Specification Requests (JSRs) to the JCP program for review: one for J2SE v1.4, the successor to J2SE v1.3 which is currently available as a beta release; the other for J2EE v1.3, the next release of J2EE, which has been shipping in v1.2 since December.

Submitting a JSR is the first step in developing or revising a Java technology specification.

Sun (SUNW) plans to ship J2SE v1.3 this spring for the Windows platform, with support for the Solaris Operating Environment and Linux to follow.

The JSR for J2EE will enable the Java technology community to participate in the definition of the target feature set for J2EE v1.3. The proposed feature set includes APIs defined in other existing JSRs, previously defined APIs, and possible new APIs.

J2EE v1.3 will be the Enterprise Edition of v1.3 of the Java 2 platform, with a full set of facilities for the development, deployment and execution of multitier, server-centric applications, including the Enterprise JavaBeans component model, JavaServer Pages technology and Java Servlets, JDBC, and JavaMail technologies.

The JSR for J2SE proposes the development of a target feature and API set for the next update release of J2SE, v1.4, scheduled to ship in 2001. This JSR is designed to ensure that the next upgrade release of J2SE includes all appropriate features and APIs now in development with the Java community. It also seeks to make certain that the release is compatible with earlier J2SE releases.