Sun Microsystems next week will announce the release and the first customer shipment of a tool aimed at simplifying enterprise Java development.
Sun is slated to announce at its JavaOne Conference in San Francisco the shipment of the Sun Java Studio Creator, formerly known by the codename Project Rave. Sun announced the technology last year at JavaOne 2003, calling it a Visual Basic-like tool for Java development.
At the time, officials at Sun Microsystems Inc. said they expected Java Studio Creator to help increase the number of Java developers from more than 2 million to more than 10 million by enabling less sophisticated developers to create Java applications.
Sun also plans to announce partnering agreements with ISVs that will support the new technology.
Sun officials said that unlike competing technology from San Jose, Calif.-based BEA Systems Inc., whose WebLogic Workshop tool also simplifies Java development, Java Studio Creator produces standard Java code.
Joe Keller, vice president of Java Web services at Sun, said more than 50,000 people have field-tested Java Studio Creator and that the technology is ready to go.
Meanwhile, BEA, which moved last month to open-source its WebLogic Workshop integrated development environment (IDE) framework in a project now known as Apache Beehive, is hoping to attract developers to its platform.
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