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In pursuit of perfection
Can Java become the perfect technology platform?
Page 2 of 5
I'm interested in analyzing Java as a platform, however; and in that context, the Java language actually plays a smaller role than the overall platform itself.
Having set the scope of the analysis, I now move on to define the most important features of any platform.
Perfect technology platform feature analysis
This list can either be very long and detailed or short and sweet. I'm going the short and sweet route. Interested readers can note that the very long and detailed list has a lot of words that end with "ility," also known as the ility matrix.
In my opinion, any potential candidate for the perfect technology platform must:
- Be easy to develop against, yet provide multiple access levels (see below for more details)
- Be stable
- Be easy to deploy, in particular to client platforms; and when deployed operate in native mode
- Have adequate performance and scalability as required
- Have industry buy-in and be open standards based at least if not in name, then in spirit
How Java measures up
Now that I've defined a set number of characteristics, let's see how Java shapes up when compared to this list.
To be brutally honest, Java is not particularly easy to develop for. Simple projects are fine, but as projects grow in complexity, infrastructural issues cause more and more problems. A good example is working with Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) application servers. Proportionally, I spend more time tracking down issues such as classloading problems than debugging actual business logic coded in Java. In addition, the disquiet felt by programmers around Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) in general (see my past article, "To EJB, Or Not To EJB?") is a clear warning sign that EJB may be simply too complex and has not taken root as the de facto persistence or business logic solution for J2EE applications. This point also speaks to tool support for the Java platform, as opposed to any weakness in Java technology itself. Bluntly speaking, Microsoft leads the way with Visual Studio, and Java needs to catch up.
My earlier reference to multiple access levels means allowing developers/users to work with Java technology as befits their level of technical expertise. Hard-core developers can use emacs/vi plus a command-line debugger to develop and deploy Java-based systems, while business analysts or even end users should be able to access and modify systems within reason using WYSIWYG tools.
Discuss
Start a new discussion or jump into one of the threads below:
- Humphrey Sheil's "To EJB, Or Not To EJB?" (JavaWorld, December 2001) describes the points used to decide whether EJB technology should be used on a particular project
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-12-2001/jw-1207-yesnoejb.html - The Eiffel programming language/platform, the end result of Bertrand Meyer's one-man assault on the perfect technology platform
http://www.eiffel.com - Haskell, the unsung hero of programming languages?
http://www.haskell.org - Check out the JSR for J2SE 1.5
http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=176 - You can find a fairly definitive list of programming languages that target the JVM other than Java itself here
http://www.robert-tolksdorf.de/vmlanguages.html - Visit the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) section of JavaWorld's Topical Index
http://www.javaworld.com/channel_content/jw-j2se-index.shtml - Browse the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) section of JavaWorld's Topical Index
http://www.javaworld.com/channel_content/jw-ejbs-index.shtml - Visit the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) section of JavaWorld's Topical Index
http://www.javaworld.com/channel_content/jw-j2ee-index.shtml - Browse the Micro Java section of JavaWorld's Topical Index
http://www.javaworld.com/channel_content/jw-micro-index.shtml - See the Java Community Process (JCP) section of JavaWorld's Topical Index
http://www.javaworld.com/channel_content/jw-jcp-index.shtml - Visit the JavaWorld Forum
http://www.javaworld.com/javaforums/ubbthreads.php?Cat=&C=2 - Sign up for JavaWorld's free weekly Enterprise Java email newsletter
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