Know thy acronyms

Maybe it's caused by the passing of time, maybe it's because of its open nature or maybe it's simply because people like to make them up. In any event, few technologies in computing are as littered with acronyms as Java is.

Just for fun, while eating lunch (yeah I know it's bad habit) I compiled a list off the top of my head of what an average developer might be subjected to, when tracking technologies in the Java space.

• AWT - Abstract Window Toolkit (UI)
  
• BGGA - Gilad Bracha, Neal Gafter, James Gosling, and Peter von der Ahe (Closures)
• CICE - Concise Instance Creation Expressions (Closures)
• EAR - Enterprise ARchive (Packaging)
  
• EDT - Event Dispatching Thread (Lingo)
  
• EJB - Enterprice Java Beans (Packaging/technology)
• FCM - First Class Methods (Closures)
  
• JAR - Java ARchive (Packaging)
• JAX-RPC - Java API for Xml-based Remote Procedure Call
• JAX-RS - The Java API for RESTful Web Services
• JAX-WS - Java API for Xml-based Web Services
• JAXB - Java Archtecture for Xml Binding
• JAXP - Java API for Xml Processing
• JCK - Java Compatibility Kit
• JCP - Java Community Process
• JDBC - Java DataBase Connector
• JDK - Java Development Kit
• JDO - Java Data Objects
• JDOM - Java Document Object Model
• JEE - Java Enterprise Edition
• JLS - Java Language Specification
• JME - Java Micro Edition
• JMM - Java Memory Model
• JMS - Java Messenging Service
• JMX - Java Management Specification
• JNDI - Java Naming and Directory Interface
• JNI - Java Native Interfacing
• JNLP - Java Network Launch Protocol
• JPA - Java Persistency API
• JPQL - Java Persistency Query Language
  
• JRE - Java Runtime Environment
• JRO - Java Runtime Object
• JSE - Java Standard Edition
• JSF - Java Server Faces
• JSP - Java Server Pages
• JSR - Java Specification Request
• JSTL - JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library
• JTA - Java Transaction API
  
• JTS - Java Transaction Service
• JVM - Java Virtual Machine
• JWS - Java Web Start (Deployment)
  
• JXTA -Juxtapose (Peer-2-Peer)
  
• NIO - New Input/Output API
• NPE - NullPointerException (Lingo)
  
• POJO - Pure Old Java Object (Lingo)
• RT - Runtime (rt.jar, the JRE)
• SAF - Swing Application Framework (JSR-296)
• SOP - System.out.print (Lingo)
  
• SWT - Standard Widget Toolkit (UI)
  
• StAX - Pull-parsing XML
• WAR - Web ARchive (Packaging)
  

I have only included direct Java acronyms, not framework (Swing, Spring, Struts...), libraries (iText, JodaTime, log4j...), tools (Maven, JUnit, JMeter...) or general purpose technologies (SVN, HG, CVS...).

The amount of acronym soup is staggering. No wonder people are sometimes overwhelmed.