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<em>JavaWorld</em> honors winners of Editors' Choice Awards

Awards ceremony at Java Internet Business Expo attended by James Gosling, Arthur van Hoff, Karl Jacob, and other prominent people in the Java community

By Jill Steinberg, JavaWorld.com, 10/01/97

On Tuesday, August 26, JavaWorld magazine held its first-ever JavaWorld Editors' Choice Awards, during Java Internet Business Expo in New York. To a packed audience in the "Java Classroom," located on the show floor of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the awards ceremony began with an introduction by Evan Quinn, director of Java & Internet Software Research, International Data Corp. (IDC), and Colette McMullen, publisher, Web Publishing Inc. Next, Michael O'Connell, Editor-in-Chief, and Jill Steinberg, Senior Editor, announced the finalists and winners in each of 12 award categories -- including an additional JavaWorld Hall of Fame inductee award. O'Connell and Steinberg read quotes from the judges for the winning products. Jenni Aloi, JavaWorld's Associate Editor, handed out the trophies to finalists and winners. Winners also received custom posters touting their awards.

The panel of judges for the JavaWorld Editors' Choice Awards included JavaWorld editors as well as the magazine's writers, most of whom have hands-on experience programming with Java. Judges considered a huge pool of products primarily taken from the JavaWorld Developer Tools Guide, which features more than 260 products. (For a look at the Tools Guide, go to http://www.javaworld.com/common/jw-toolstable-bycategory.html.) In choosing winners, the judges carefully weighed each product's features and functions, as well as its impact in advancing Java as a language and/or as a platform.

Here is the complete list of JavaWorld Editors' Choice Award categories, finalists, and winners:

Category: JavaWorld Hall of Fame inductee

James Gosling, Sun Microsystems/JavaSoft

Category

Finalists

Winner

Most Valuable Company	IBM Corp. Netscape Corp. Sun Microsystems/JavaSoft	Sun Microsystems/JavaSoft
Most Valuable Product	Castanet, Marimba Inc. Java Development Kit (JDK), Sun Microsystems/JavaSoft JGL: Generic Collections for Java, ObjectSpace Inc.	Java Development Kit (JDK), Sun Microsystems/JavaSoft
Best Java Application	Corel Office for Java, Corel Corp. HotJava Browser, Sun Microsystems/JavaSoft Jigsaw, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)	Corel Office for Java, Corel Corp.
Testing Tools	DeepCover for Java, Reliable Software Technologies Corp. SunTest Suite, Sun Microsystems Inc. TCAT for Java, Software Research Inc.	SunTest Suite, Sun Microsystems Inc.
GUI Class Libraries	JClass BWT, KL Group Inc. JWidgets, Rogue Wave Software Inc. NetCharts, NetFactory Inc.	JWidgets, Rogue Wave Software Inc.
System-Level Class Libraries	J/Crypto, Baltimore Technologies JGL: Generic Collections for Java, ObjectSpace Inc. OrbixWeb, IONA Technologies	JGL: Generic Collections for Java, ObjectSpace Inc.

Category

Finalists

Winner

Database Middleware	dbANYWHERE, Symantec Corp. jdbcKona, WebLogic Inc. ObjectStore PSE for Java, Object Design Inc.	ObjectStore PSE for Java, Object Design Inc.
Database Tools	Fresco, Infoscape Inc. NetDynamics, NetDynamics Inc. Sapphire/Web, Bluestone Software Inc.	NetDynamics, NetDynamics Inc.
Training Aids	Java in a Nutshell, David Flanagan/O'Reilly & Associates The Java Tutorial: Object-Oriented Programming for the Internet (Java Series), Mary Campione and Kathy Walrath/Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. The MindQ Java Series (CD-ROMs), MindQ Publishing Inc.	Java in a Nutshell, David Flanagan/O'Reilly & Associates
Web Authoring Tools	Coda, RandomNoise Inc. Liquid Motion Pro, Dimension X NetObjects Fusion, NetObjects Inc.	NetObjects Fusion, NetObjects Inc.
Utilities	Applet Designer, TV Objects Mocha decompiler, Hanpeter van Vliet WingDis, WingSoft Corp.	Applet Designer, TV Objects Corp.
IDE Development Tools	SuperCede, SuperCede Inc. VisualAge for Java, IBM Corp. Visual Cafe Pro, Symantec Corp.	Visual Cafe Pro, Symantec Corp.

Corel Office for Java creates a buzz at ceremony

At the ceremony one of the big surprises was the announcement of "Best Java Application": JavaWorld gave that coveted prize to Corel Office for Java, despite the fact that -- just days before the New York show, yet after the award winners had been finalized -- Corel announced it would not ship Office for Java in its current form and instead would revamp its strategy to deliver its office functions as components.

JavaWorld Editors' Choice Awards judges were clear in their decision to honor Corel Office for Java, which -- like all choices -- had been finalized two weeks prior to the awards ceremony and made with great care. Judges focused not on products' status as final (non-beta) releases but on their broader impact on the Java community. The judges' comments about Corel Office for Java speak for themselves; here are a few of the quotes:

"100% Pure Java to the extreme."

"This pioneering product pushes the envelope of what Java can be used for."

"First truly cross-platform office suite."

"The first full-fledged Java application."

And in NC World magazine, in an article on Corel's decision, editor-in-chief Nicholas Petreley wrote, "Corel Office for Java in its original state succeeded at its most important goal. It changed forever the public-perception of Corel, Java, and network computing." (For the full story, see http://www.ncworldmag.com/ncworld/ncw-08-1997/ncw-08-corel.html.)

Java and Elvis? Gosling accepts many awards

James Gosling was present at the awards ceremony, as the recipient of the JavaWorld Hall of Fame award. Upon being named the Hall of Fame inductee, Gosling gave a short speech in which he mentioned he heard recently that 200 books have been published on Elvis. Based on the number of Java books now available or in the works (more than 1,000 by one estimate), he declared that Java "is bigger than Elvis."

Gosling returned to the stage a number of times times to haul away trophies, including the winning "Most Valuable Company" (Sun Microsystems) and "Most Valuable Product" (JDK, Sun Microsystems). (Joseph Ols, SunTest's manager of marketing, was there to accept the "Testing Tools" winning award for Sun's SunTest Suite.)

Arthur van Hoff, chief technology officer, Marimba, with James Gosling, Java's creator

Other famous faces in the awards ceremony crowd included Arthur van Hoff, chief technology officer of Marimba and formerly a member of the original Java team at Sun, Karl Jacob, CEO of Dimension X until its recent acquisition by Microsoft (he's now group program manager of the new Microsoft division), and Tim Berners-Lee, director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and creator of the Web. In the "Best Java Application" category, Berners-Lee accepted the award for Jigsaw, on behalf of its author, Anselm Baird-Smith, who was not able to travel to the U.S. to attend the ceremony.

Narrowing the field: The judging process

Judges nominated their best-product choices based on their personal knowledge of and experience with various products. The nominees were then voted on to determine the three finalists. The winners named at the awards ceremony were determined based on yet another vote -- this time comparing only the three finalists. Judges participated in several rounds of votes and runoffs to determine which products and companies most deserved finalist status, and ultimately, which deserved to be deemed winner in each category. With the high quality of the tools and technologies being considered, choosing one winner out of the finalist pool often proved challenging.

The judges on the JavaWorld Editors' Choice Awards panel were:

• Michael O'Connell, editor-in-chief, JavaWorld
• Jill Steinberg, senior editor, JavaWorld
• Jenni Aloi, associate editor, JavaWorld
• Barry D. Bowen, writer and analyst, Bowen Group Inc.
• Bill Day, software engineer, Silicon Graphics Computer Systems
• Donald Drake, digital publishing analyst, Chicago Tribune
• Dave Dyer, programmer, Andromeda Software, and author of JavaWorld's July cover story comparing four Java decompilers
• Frank D. Greco, president and CEO, Crossroads Technologies Inc.
• Qusay H. Mahmoud, software designer at a major telecommunications company in Ottawa, Canada
• Dave Makower, Web consultant and Java developer, Pencom Web Works, and author of JavaWorld's two cover stories on Mac IDEs
• Gary McGraw, Ph.D., research scientist, Reliable Software Technologies, and noted speaker, consultant, and author on Java security
• Chuck McManis, director of system software, FreeGate Corp., and JavaWorld's "Java In Depth" columnist
• John D. Mitchell, co-author of Making Sense of Java: A Guide for Managers and the Rest of Us and of Dummies 101: Java Programming, and moderator of JavaWorld's "Java Tips" column
• Dave Orchard, technical architect, IBM's Pacific Development Center
• Todd Sundsted, co-author of the Java Language API SuperBible, president, Etcee, which offers Java-centric training, mentoring, and consulting, and author of JavaWorld's "How-to-Java" column
• John Zukowski, software mage, MageLang Institute, and author of Java AWT Reference and Borland JBuilder: No Experience Required

All judges have written articles for JavaWorld, and most are full-time professional Java programmers. Evan Quinn, Director of Java & Internet Software Research, International Data Corp. (IDC), served as a consultant to the judging process.

 

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