The Jakarta Project lives or fails based on its human resources. Users and contributors alike help the project with ideas and brainpower. A common foundation of knowledge is required to effectively participate in this virtual community. The following is a list of documents that we have found helpful for us and may be helpful to you:

These resources are required reading for anybody contributing source code to the project.

The Java Language Specification
Written by the creators of the Java Programming Language, this online book is considered by many to be the bible for programming in Java. A must read.

Javadoc
Javadoc is the automatic software documentation generator used by Java since it was first released. All code written for this project must be documented using Javadoc conventions.

The Java Code Conventions
This Sun document specifies the de-facto standard way of formatting Java code. All code written for this project must follow these conventions.

Open Source Development with CVS
Written by Karl Fogel, this is an online version of many of the primary chapters from the dead-tree version of his book.

Introduction to CVS
Written by Jim Blandy, this brief introduction gives a first look into CVS. If you have never used CVS before, you'll want to start here.

Version Management with CVS
Written by Per Cederqvist at al, this is the main manual for CVS. It provides details on all documented CVS features.

Version Control with Subversion
Written by Ben Collins-Sussman, Brian W. Fitzpatrick & C. Michael Pilato. This is a Subversion manual that currently provides information about Subversion 1.0 and 1.1.

Source Code Philosophy Resources

The following are a set of articles written about the recent source code movements that help illustrate some of the attributes of a collaborative project such as this. You may not agree with all of the points of these articles, but an understanding of them will help in communicating with everyone on the project.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar
Written by Eric S. Raymond, this is a must read for anyone willing to join or support a volunteer project.

Homesteading the Noosphere
Written by Eric S. Raymond, this is a sequel to "The Cathedral and the Bazaar". It details the property and ownership customs of the open-source culture. This analysis has larg implications for anyone interested in organizing large-scale intellectual collaborations such as this project.

Sun Community Source License Principles
Written by Richard Gabriel and Bill Joy, this document gives an overview of the principles behind Community Source, the source code licensing model that the majority of the Java Platform is licensed under.

Apache License and Distribution FAQ
This page answers most of the common queries that we receive about the Apache license, licensing use of the software, and packaging or redistributing it.