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Java tools reign supreme

<em>JavaWorld</em> celebrates the leading Java tools

By Jennifer Orr, JavaWorld.com, 06/09/03

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Page 5 of 7

"Java Web Start is what Java applets should have been," comments ECA judge Yuan. "It deploys and updates fully functional Java applications to the client side. It could bring life back to client-side Java development."

Now that Java Web Start is included with every copy of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE)—an improvement added to version 1.2—Yuan's prediction could become a reality in that more and more desktops will have the technology already installed. In addition, version 1.2 includes auto installation on Windows. Connell explains that users can just click through one security dialog box to download Java Web Start and/or the JRE.

"What I love about Web Start is you get installation without it feeling like an installer," says ECA judge Steinberg.

Finalists:

  • InstallAnywhere 5, Zero G
  • InstallShield MultiPlatform 5, InstallShield


Best Java Book: Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture, Martin Fowler et al., Addison-Wesley

The idea for Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture originated during drinks between author, Martin Fowler, and David Rice, one of the book's contributors. At that time, Fowler had been consulting with ThoughtWorks, a company that wanted to sensibly design and build an enterprise Java application using EJB.

"Many of the guiding things that helped us with the design were experiences that we had in previous languages, such as C++, Forte, and Smalltalk, which brought home the fact that a set of common ideas underlies the design of these kinds of systems," says Fowler. After presenting these ideas at conferences, he and Rice discussed organizing them in a book. "In particular, we wanted to bring out the fact that these patterns really do exist across multiple implementation platforms."

The book's emphasis on underlying software ideas and patterns as opposed to a particular platform's specifics is what Fowler thinks appeals most to Java developers. "A lot of books concentrate on being the missing manual, as it were," he says. "That's good, but very hard books to do well and very important books to do are those that try to capture knowledge that people can take from platform to platform."

The fact that the book is both a tutorial and a reference book also factors into its popularity with developers says Fowler: "If someone wants to read the book, they only need to read the first 100 pages to get an overview of what's in the book, and they can dip into the reference section as needed."

Says ECA judge John Zukowski, president of JZ Ventures, "Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture is another must-have book from Fowler and company at Addison-Wesley."

Finalists:

  • Java Development with Ant, Erik Hatcher and Steve Loughran, Manning Publications
  • Java Performance Tuning, Second Edition, Jack Shirazi, O'Reilly


Most Useful Java Community-Developed Technology: Apache Ant 1.5, the Apache Ant Project

Ant still reigns as the Most Useful Java Community-Developed Technology, having acquired that distinction in last year's ECA. Version 1.5 of the Java-based build tool features a range of new tasks that support more development and packaging processes, as well as numerous bug fixes.

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