I'm conflicted. I like the idea of having the Descriptors integrated, and I like them separated.. For me it kinda boils down to: What is a WebArchive(war) without its Descriptor(web.xml)? (If we ignore parts of the upcomming Servlet 3.0 spec) Not much. What is a ResourceAdapterArchive(ra) without its Descriptor(ra.xml)? ? What is a EnterpriseArchive(ear) without its Descriptor(application.xml)? Most common usecases were removed with J2ee 5? What is a EJB Archive without its Descriptor(ejb-jar.xml)? Most common usecases were removed with J2ee 5. This is all spec related questions. We of course have the set of Container specific deployment descriptors as well.. but that is another story. View the original post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4257708#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...