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Sun lets Jini Starter Kit 1.1 out of the bottle

<em>JavaWorld</em> author Frank Sommers talks with Jini architect Jim

By Frank Sommers, JavaWorld.com, 12/08/00

This year is shaping up as a success for Jini technology. Jini licensees now exceed 50,000, and the technology is deploying everywhere from automobiles to enterprise software systems. The upcoming Fifth Jini Community Meeting, scheduled for December 11-12 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, has received a remarkable response. The meeting reached its capacity well in advance, and excess registrations spilled over onto a waiting list. For developers, the year's most important event may have been the October release of the 1.1 version of the Jini Starter Kit (JSK).

Jim Waldo and his team at Sun have been instrumental in this success story. Waldo has been investigating the use of Java technology for distributed computing and persistence for the past 6 years. Waldo is also an adjunct faculty member at Harvard University in the department of engineering and applied sciences, where he teaches distributed computing.

Prior to joining the Java group, Waldo was a principal investigator for Sun Microsystems Laboratories; he did research in the areas of object-oriented programming and systems, distributed computing, and user environments. Before joining Sun, Waldo spent 8 years at Apollo Computer and Hewlett-Packard working in the areas of distributed object systems, user interfaces, class libraries, text, and internationalization. He holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

JavaWorld: What's new in the Jini Starter Kit 1.1?

Jim Waldo: First, it's important to realize that the 1.1 release is an addition to Jini, as opposed to a change in Jini. All of the interfaces and services that were available in the first release are still available and unchanged. Anything that used to run as a Jini service will still run as a Jini service.

For the 1.1 release, we put together some utility classes to make writing a Jini service or a Jini client easier. Some of these were actually included in the first Jini release. We tried to apply to them the same careful design effort that we put in the earlier interfaces that define Jini as whole, mainly to make these utilities easier to use and more robust. Mostly, people can use these utility classes -- yet they don't have to -- to write their services. We make a distinction between utilities, which are classes, and services that are real Jini services living out on the network. This time around, we put in a lease-renewal service, a lookup discovery service, and an event mailbox.

JavaWorld: What other utilities and services are you planning to introduce in a future version of the JSK?

Jim Waldo: One of these items might be a service used to send events. A number of people have been looking at a utility class that will grant leases, to make the whole leasing model somewhat simpler. Another addition will be a set of utilities or tools that will make it easier to configure a Jini network. Also, we will be adding services and utilities that will help you get your classpath right, and your code-base right.

JavaWorld: Will there be any security-related services?

 

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