Category

Plain Old Java Object – POJO

You have probably read someplace that Plain Old Java Object AKA Pojo was the invention of a committee.

The term was coined by Martin Fowler, Rebecca Parsons and Josh MacKenzie in September 2000

This reminds me of Woody Allen’s short story in Getting Even on the “invention” of the Earl of Sandwich.

1745: After four years of frenzied labor, he is convinced he is on the threshold of success. He exhibits before his peers two slices of turkey with a slice of bread in the middle. His work is rejected by all but David Hume, who senses the imminence of something great and encourages him.

So, can you imagine these people sitting around a conference room table trying out acronyms for their own self promotion?

“RJO: Regular Java Object?” “You mean like a regular expression?”

“Non EJB?” “One would hope that most were non EJBs (pre 3.0)”

“SJO: Simple Java Object?” “You can write fairly complex classes without implementing anything”

“How about JO?” “Um I think that might also mean something else”

and the variations of the above s/Object/Class/g

BTW, at what point does a POJO stop being a POJO? Do you think that after you add Spring and JPA annotations it’s still a POJO? Or the opposite: an APOJO (like theist and atheist) with the a also meaning annotated?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.