Hope for Oracle, as the axe starts to gently fall

Well, with Oracle having been in control of Java for a week or so, now, and Sun's former CEO quitting via Tweet haiku, we can start to take stock a little of the future of the Java platform. This JavaLobby roundup for JCP member reactions is intriguing just for its sheer hopefulness about the future of that crucial aspect of the Java community.

Read more ...

The iPad and what it means for Java

In my last post, I made a little joke about the closing of the Sun-Oracle deal being overshadowed by Apple's big iPad announcement. The folks at Oracle would almost certainly have preferred that their deal closed perhaps a few days earlier or later, so they wouldn't have to compete with the Apple marketing juggernaut. The two presentations were aimed at wildly different audiences; but still, there were important (and possibly troubling) hints at Java's future hidden in Apple's messaging.

Read more ...

Oracle-Sun closes; mists clear (a little)

Well, the day we've been waiting for has finally arrived: Apple released its long-awaited tablet computer! Oh, wait, wrong blog. No, Sun has finally ceased to exist as a separate entity (at least in the US and Europe) and Java is firmly in Oracle's hands.

Read more ...

Sun and Java: Looking forward, looking back

As Sun passes gently into that good night, a couple of interesting articles chronicle the moment of transition. The Register has a mildly jaundiced look back at Jonathan Schwartz's history with the company. Schwartz's rise paralleled the rise of software within a company that had really always been a hardware company.

Read more ...

EU: Sun-Oracle merger won't hurt Java

All this time we've spent in limbo awaiting the EU's OK on the Oracle-Sun merger -- the OK that officially arrived this week -- the frustrating assumption for Java fans has been that the hold-up wasn't even related to Java, though it would have a huge effect on the platform. The EU's official press release approving the merger doesn't necessarily belie that impression, with much of the up-front matter focusing on the MySQL drama.

Read more ...

Sun-Oracle is really happening; let the carnage begin?

Last month the promised head-on collision between Oracle and the European Commission ended not with a bang, but with a whimper. This means in all likelihood that the EU will give its seal of approval to the Oracle-Sun merger quite soon -- perhaps as early as Wednesday, January 20 -- and almost certainly by the review deadline of January 27, which means that the merger will finally be complete in February at some point.

Read more ...

Enterprise Java: Layers upon layers of complexity

I've talked here before about SpringSource, which is interesting to me primarly because of what it represents a reaction to: namely that Java Enterprise Edition code is hard, and complex, and difficult to get right, and so of course if someone says "We can do most of what Java EE can do only a lot easier," you'd find plenty of people who'd jump at the chance to try it out. There are other ways to deal with the complexity, of course.

Read more ...

Mobile Java more splintered than ever

One of the many ways that JavaFX was supposed to change the world of Java forever: it was supposed to supply a unifying method for creating slick mobile UIs with Java. That's been one of the technology's less fulfilled promises (does anyone know of any mobile JavaFX apps out there in the wild?). Instead, Java mobile development in practice remains spread out over various quasi-compatible silos.

Read more ...

Building on Java

Some years ago I did some behind-the-scenes editing for a tech site that published a lot of Java how-tos, and they were real sticklers about the conforming to Sun's trademark diktats, no matter how asinine I or the other editors found them. Chief among these rules: Java must never be used as a noun, only as an adjective modifying other.

Read more ...

JavaFX: Am I missing the point? Or is the developer community?

Earlier this month, I put up a somewhat grouchy post about JavaFX, or at least about my experience with one JavaFX app -- specifically, in the weird and wonky way in which I had to download and install it. I asked about others' experiences with better-run apps, and got a couple of interesting anonymous responses in the comments section. The first, under the heading "Ha ha, silly post," was as follows:

Read more ...

Java Store: Ready for prime time?

The Java Store really ought to be one of the biggest bits of Java desktop news since the platform came into existence. At last, a quick and easy way for customers to get Java apps, and for Java developers to connect with customers directly! Sure, it's following in the footsteps of Apple's iPhone App Store, but nobody's actually managed to pull off a desktop version of this yet, so Sun could be as much on the cutting edge as anybody else. Now that the Java Store is in beta, I thought I'd take it out for a spin and see how it works!

Read more ...

Spring 3.0 arrives, tries to have it both ways with Java EE

Spring 3.0 is here, which should be of interest to the people who use it. Of whom there are many! For good reasons! This is how The H puts it:

The Spring Framework was founded in 2002 with the aim of simplifying the programming of enterprise Java applications.

Read more ...

EU-Oracle battle collapses into a lovefest

Well, the big showdown in Europe between EU regulators and Oracle ended in smiles and positive talk all around, which is about the last thing anybody expected from all the tough talk that had been flying back and forth. My take is that in the game of chicken, Oracle blinked first, releasing a list of MySQL-related commitments yesterday afternoon that pretty clearly aim to assuage European regulatory opinion.

Read more ...

Java EE 6: It's here! It's modular!

Java EE 6 has arrived, and with it its reference implementation, GlassFish 3! Its varying components will not be news to anyone, particularly, who has been following along, but they are still varied and interesting. There are good roundups at InfoWorld and Developer.com.

Read more ...

Sun to discuss Java EE in uncertain climate

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's greatest contribution to the English language came with his discussion of "known unknowns" and "unknown unknowns." Known unknowns tend to encourage one to seek out the truth or the future course of development, but unknown unknowns can be paralyzing, as we wait for the picture to clarify before making decisions. In light of the the merger limbo Sun's been in, with all the unknown unknowns that entails, it makes sense that we've had very little direction from the company on Java's future -- and certainly very little from the top executives.

Read more ...