Recent top five:
Java.next -- Four languages that represent the future of Java
Blogger Stuart Halloway has begun a series of posts on trends that point to the future of the Java platform. In his first
post, he compares Clojure, Groovy, JRuby, and Scala -- four wildly different languages that nonetheless all play together
in the JRE. Find out what unites these languages and what they can tell us about the future of Java-based development ...
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| Oracle Compatibility Developer's Guide |
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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. |
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.)
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 |
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.