JBoss EL vs. Sun's EL 2.1.2?

[langles]

1. Does anyone know whether the syntax for the advanced features in JBoss EL and the new Sun EL 2.1.2 in J2EE 6 / Glassfish 3 are completely compatible? 

   http://download.java.net/maven/glassfish/org/glassfish/web/el-impl/2.1.2-SNAPSHOT/

That is, is either jar a drop-in replacement for the other?

2. Related question, does Sun's 2.1.2 and/or JBoss's EL support all the wished-for features listed here?

http://seamframework.org/Documentation/EL212

Thanks.

Scott Langley

[langles]

Dan Allen answered my question for the most part in response to a comment on a blog:

http://www.mojavelinux.com/blog/archives/2009/08/why_you_didnt_know_the_unified_el_is_being_updated/#comment1311

4 | Posted by Dan Allen on December 09, 2009 at 03:13 PM EST

The EL implementation in GlassFish is not a drop in replacement for JBoss EL. What they share is the parametrized EL syntax (they can be value expressions or method expressions). What you do not get is projections and magic methods (like .size on a collection).

Note that the version of EL you need to get parametrized EL syntax is 2.2. The artifacts are org.glassfish.web.el-api:2.2 and org.glassfish.web.el-impl:2.2.

[dan.j.allen]

Thanks Scott. Correct, they are not drop in replacements. JBoss EL was the prototype for the changes in EL 2.2. The spec document for EL 2.2 was just updated yesterday (click for evaluation to get the document).

Now we are left to decide what to do with JBoss EL. Either we can try to align it with EL 2.2 or we can switch to EL 2.2 RI and then add the enhancements to Seam. I think #2 is the right approach. That way, we aren't left having to maintain EL, which really isn't what us Seam developers want to be doing.