Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Development
    • Development

    Father of Java Sounds Off

    By
    Darryl K. Taft
    -
    November 22, 2002
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      James Gosling, the father of Java and a fellow at Sun Microsystems Inc., graced the Software Development Conference and Expo East 2002 with his presence this week, addressing a wide range of issues from Suns software strategy to Web services to embedded Java to open-source software.

      Gosling delivered an evening keynote address Wednesday at the show in Boston, but also spent a session with the press answering questions about everything under the sun.

      With Web services a hot topic, Gosling addressed the issue and, in the process, gave credit to Sun rival Microsoft Corp. for its stewardship of Web services standards.

      “Microsoft is in front of the game right now in that theyve made commitments to standards, and if they honor those commitments it will be good for the industry and for interoperability,” Gosling said. “But if you read any of the e-mails from the court cases, its obvious that Microsoft hates interoperability.”

      Meanwhile, in response to questions from the press corps, Gosling defended Suns software efforts. He said Sun has basically received a bad rap for its support of XML in the Java 2 Enterprise Edition platform. Gosling said that the fact Sun got criticized for lacking XML support was based on a misunderstanding. J2EE 1.3 is out in the market, and “it runs on top of JDK [Java Devlopers Kit] 1.4 that has all the XML APIs in it. So its more a matter of naming,” Gosling said.

      He said “the Java system is architected to be very modular so you can drop things in.”

      Gosling later spoke of Microsofts .Net strategy and its Java-like C# language, saying C# and Microsofts memory model around C and C++ is unsafe.

      “C# has this unsafe access facility,” he said. “The C and C++ memory model strikes a bullet through the heart of Microsofts CLR [Common Language Runtime] strategy.”

      Page Two

      : Father of Java Sounds Off”>

      C and C++ enable developers to exploit system weaknesses, he said. “You can get around any interface that is intrinsic in C and C++.” However, “in Java I took the position that the integrity of interfaces had to be respected,” Gosling said. “And that translated to be a big deal in security and reliability.”

      Gosling said Microsoft has three main things going for it: “easy-to-use tools, an unbelievable marketing budget and a desktop monopoly to exploit.”

      Gosling knocked todays development tools. Although he said a lot of ease-of-use in the development arena is around tools, “tools is kind of a broad market because the price points have been driven to where its very difficult to drive a profit.”

      Yet Gosling said very few tools actually help really adept programmers develop software. “If you look behind the back of a developer at work, youll probably notice hes not using some fancy new tool or IDE [integrated development environment], but a text editor,” he said. And often that text editor is Emacs, the Unix version of which Gosling created some 20 years ago. He said he is amazed that Emacs has not evolved very much in all these years.

      Following his stint with the press, Gosling delivered his keynote on “The Future of Open, End-to-End Software Systems, where he highlighted a few of his favorite Java systems. One was for the Brazilian National Health system, which Gosling said contained “a big pile of Enterprise JavaBeans.” He said the system runs on five national server farms that look at 12 million people in 44 cities, he said.

      The Brazilian National Healthcare system has about 10 million lines of code, Gosling said, and the organization plans to turn its software over to the open-source movement.

      “Its like 10 million lines of code,” he said. “I dont know what SourceForge would do with this,” he quipped. SourceForge.net is an open-source software repository maintained by VA Software Inc.

      (Editors Note: This story has been updated since its original posting to clarify Goslings role in creating Emacs.)

      Darryl K. Taft
      Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      Applications

      Cisco’s Thimaya Subaiya on Customer Experience in...

      James Maguire - May 10, 2022 0
      I spoke with Thimaya Subaiya, SVP and GM of Global Customer Experience at Cisco, about the factors that create good customer experience – and...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×