Goals for 2018

• Update dependencies
  • Jetty 10
  • Rhino 1.7.8
  • Log4j 2
• Finalize adaptions for Java 9 and upcoming Java releases
• Replace the ringo/httpserver with grob/httpserver
• Improve documentation of not so common modules
• Stay a solid and stabilized project without any big breaking changes at the core

Non-goals for the future

• Replace Rhino with Nashorn or any other JVM-based engine
• Major changes in the modules except the new httpserver
• Modififcations of the module loader / resource management

Overall project status and outlook

In the last years the development of Ringo settled down at a low, but continuous rate. We see it as a solid JVM-based platform to develop and run large scale web applications. Our top aim is to stay solid and predictable, without any major changes. There is no intend to move from the Rhino JavaScript engine to any other alternative. Though, we will follow the updates of Rhino and Jetty. Since Jetty will see easier HTTP/2 support in the near future, this will also reflect in Ringo.

Back in early 2008 when Ringo emerged from Helma, it hasn't been clear which server-side JavaScript platform will succeed (and Node.js came on the scene mid-2009). We had a vivid community around CommonJS which multiple interesting runtimes and frameworks. Though, today we face a dominant runtime with Node.js and the npm ecosystem. Instead of comparing with this Goliath, we will continue a separate and independent way. We will improve our small set of high-quality packages like stick and sqlstore, but keep Ringo’s core modules stable and API-compatible.

In the long run, we will see in Ringo an easy to maintain and deploy JavaScript runtime evolving together with the Java platform and its ecosystem.