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Java 1997: A detailed look at where Java's going this year and in the near future
Java has made a tremendous splash in its short life. Find out how industry strategies and hardware/software innovations will affect the future of this prodigy
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The bottom line is that IIOP has been "decoupled" from Java 1.1. Software from Visigenic and IONA both provide Java-based ORBs, but the ORB must be downloaded to the client browser or bundled with the Java application. Life would have been so much simpler if JavaSoft, IONA, and Visigenic could have agreed to the Java-to-IDL binding in time for Java 1.1.
Tools
JavaSoft also makes tools such as the free, command-line Java Development Kit 1.1, graphical Java WorkShop, and JavaBean Developer
Kit. It appears that JavaSoft is not committing serious resources to the tool efforts. Rather, it is relying on third parties,
such as Symantec, Microsoft, Borland, IBM, and others, to develop tools. While this frees up JavaSoft to expand the language,
it also allows for a development environment (DE) provider to add proprietary extensions to the language. Cough.
What's next
The next major release of Java, Java 2.0, is slated for mid- to late-1997. Although details are sketchy, release 2.0 is expected
to bring Java up to the level of a regular operating system. Expect to see drag-and-drop functionality, more changes to the
AWT, 2D graphics format with Adobe, sound with HeadSpace, and 3D extensions with Liquid Reality.
In 1.1, asynchronous I/O to some streams but not all (such as random access file-based I/O) was added. Full buffering should be added in the next release, but there's no official word yet. For now, you'll have to use third-party solutions. See the Resources at the end of this article for information on how to improve Java's current I/O performance.
Outside of the Java 2.0 changes, various other APIs and services are in the works:
- A Java Transaction Service (JTS), which is crucial for Java to compete with ActiveX's transaction server (Microsoft Transaction
Service, or MTS) at an enterprise-server level, is in the proposal stages. JTS is a Java implementation of the CORBA transaction
service.
- Name and Directory services will be added. Now that millions of people are on the Web, we need common standards for how to
find someone's address and e-mail information.
- Web server extensions called servlets will allow Java bytecodes to be uploaded to a Web server. Servlets are one of the many works-in-progress needed to add a
mobile agent infrastructure to the Web. Mobile Java agents, combined with database connectivity at a server, open up some
very interesting market possibilities.
- To manage all those embedded systems and consumer electronics that incorporate Java, a Management API is in the proposal stages.
- An Electronic Commerce Framework involving digital wallets, payment, and smart cards also will be released.
- EmbeddedJava, PersonalJava, and Java Card comprise a set of Java class libraries designed for non-PC devices.
Stir in a little Netscape
Netscape Navigator has been a driving force behind the acceptance of Java. As the first widely deployed browser with Java, Navigator forced every other vendor to include Java support. Netscape has extended the standard class libraries with the introduction of Internet Foundation Classes (IFC). IFC has not been adopted as a standard in the industry due to developer concerns about being locked in to a non-JavaSoft windowing environment. However, in the spirit of openness, Netscape has provided source code for the IFC.Communicator 4.0, Netscape's in-the-works addition to its product line, will include a number of very interesting features, such as IIOP support, but the two key areas of interest to Java developers are a new security model and support for portions of Java 1.1. The new security model will allow the user to open up the JVM sandbox. This change is a crucial component in allowing Java applets a more suitable execution environment -- currently, an applet either has no access or full access. The modified security measures, along with support for JDK 1.1, should provide a powerful competitive edge for Netscape over potential Communicator competitors.
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Resources
- Object Management Group and CORBA:
http://www.omg.org/ - Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the Java Venture Fund:
http://www.kpcb.com - Visigenic's Java to IDL compiler Caffeine:
http://www.pomoco.com/news/netcaff.html - JavaSoft's Java API overview:
http://www.javasoft.com/products/api-overview.html - JavaSoft's Beans specification:
http://splash.javasoft.com/beans/ - JavaSoft's 100% Pure Java initiative:
http://www.javasoft.com/100percent/index.html - JavaSoft's next AWT, including JFC:
http://www.javasoft.com:80/products/jdk/1.1/docs/guide/awt/designspec/nextAWT.html - Netscape's Java documentation, including server- and client-side Java:
http://developer.netscape.com/library/documentation/index.html - Microsoft's Java products and strategy:
http://www.microsoft.com/java/sdk/ - IBM's Java efforts:
http://www.ibm.com/java/platform_solutions.html - IBM's Network Computing Framework:
http://www.software.ibm.com/ebusiness/ - IBM's alphaWorks:
http://alphaworks.ibm.com - And don't miss JavaWorld columnist William Blundon enter his opinion on the subject in his article "How Microsoft is broadening Java's scope"
- For a look at how you can improve Java's I/O performance, check out Nick Zhang's Java tip:
"How to improve Java's I/O performance"
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