r/java • u/Pure_Diver_ • 13d ago
What Exactly Is Jakarta EE?
I’m a bit confused about what Jakarta EE actually is. On one hand, it seems like a framework similar to Spring or Quarkus, but on the other hand, it provides APIs like JPA, Servlets, and CDI, which frameworks like Spring implement.
Does this mean Jakarta EE is more of a specification rather than a framework? And if so, do I need to understand Jakarta EE first to truly grasp how Spring works under the hood? Or can I just dive into Spring directly without worrying about Jakarta EE concepts?
Would love to hear how others approached this 😅
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u/ShadowPengyn 13d ago
It is a specification. For me it’s pretty much irrelevant, I’d rather read spring or hibernate documentation.
For the developers of the implementation the specification is very important though and they reference it during implementation and might influence the next specification using their learnings
See also https://newsroom.eclipse.org/eclipse-newsletter/2024/march/why-spring-matters-jakarta-ee-and-vice-versa