The Goal: Pure Java implementation of simple but powerful, modular, scalable, pluggable and configurable (blah blah blah) platform for assembling desktop (SE) and/or (EE) business applications from small to mid-size enterprises. Built on Spring and Spring RC and accepting all Rod's et al. "philosophy" and goals. While Spring is about Java beans and contexts, we should go an abstraction layer upper and work with "business rules", "invoices", "reports", "phonebook", etc (still just wondering).
In the first phase, I will try to reimplement a small business application - the SBP1 ;) - built in past by myself in Delphi. I will try to use my experience from other mid-size and enterprise applications too, that I was involved. These applications ranges from Firebird to heavyweight, PL/SQL backed Oracle on "bottom", and from Delphi thick clients to J2EE (Struts, Spring) web apps on "top".
From the business rules aspect (literally business!), the fact that these applications were wrote for customers in CE (Hungary and former Yugoslavia mostly), the business rules of the pilot application will be converging to their standards. Later, this will be broadened (configurable?). Any participants from WE are welcome!
Second, the common parts will be isolated as reusable (reintegratable?) parts. These components (libraries, beans, whatever) could form the SBP repository. Using this repository an SBP Application could be built, just as we now build J2EE Apps using Spring.
While the components count grows, maybe some sort of GUI/automation, that helps build Spring context XML's (or our config files, and generating contexts from those?) to form a complete SBPApp? Like the BeanBuilder? (think, think, think...)