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Microsoft's J/Direct called death of Java
New virtual machine feature may prevent Java from turning into full-blown platform
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In the end it will be developers, not Sun or Microsoft, who determine J/Direct's success or failure. According to one Java developer, Keng Lim, CEO of Kiva Software Corp., the ability to call C++ code without having to go to JNI (Java Native Interface) "could be very appealing for a lot of Windows developers." But, he says, developers are also keenly aware of the appeal of Java's portability, and porting code costs money. "If you just want to sell on Windows," he predicts, "if you don't care about portability, then it's a compelling solution."
Lim says his company won't be supporting J/Direct right away, but others seem less sure. Tool vendors Symantec and Borland did not have any comment on whether they would be supporting J/Direct in their Java development environments.
J/Direct will eventually ship in all copies of the Microsoft Win32 Java virtual machine. It will first appear in the next release of Internet Explorer, expected four to six weeks from now. Microsoft says it will release J/Direct development tools at the same time in its Java software development kit. J/Direct will ship as part of future versions of Windows 95 and NT, and it will be in the Internet Information Server as well.
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Resources
- J/Direct http://www.microsoft.com/corpinfo/press/1997/Jun97/Jdirecpr.htm
- Java Native Interface Programming: http://www.sun.com/edu/hot/Tutorial/native1.1/implementing/index.html
- Morgenthal explains himself: http://www.itfa.com/html/editor_note.html
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