Wizard API updated!
Tim Boudreau has released a new version of the Swing Wizard library (version 0.997) that fixes the WizardException bug reported in JavaWorld's recent Open Source Java Project profile. The article's examples have been reworked to test out the new, improved WizardException. Thanks, Tim, for this helpful fix!
Open Source Java Projects: The Wizard API

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JavaOne offers advancements, mind benders, and disappointments

At JavaSoft's main event, which took place in San Francisco in early April, Java came off as a great success. Here's a look at the JavaOne technology triumphs -- and, a disappointment or two

By Eric Armstrong, JavaWorld.com, 05/01/97

This year's JavaOne Worldwide Developer Conference was a triumphant festival for the Java faithful. Sun took great pride in announcing that, in a little more than 18 months, Java has grown from a minor curiosity to the #2 development language in the world -- and it's still growing.

Perhaps more important is the fact that Sun continues to occupy the moral high ground in the quest for a platform-neutral and vendor-neutral language system by acknowledging contributions by IBM, Netscape, Novell, and others to the Java language and APIs. In other words, Java does not represent a single-vendor solution to common industry problems; it's the result of a collaboration among some of the best minds in the business.

By maintaining control of its development, so far Sun has managed to keep Java from being the product of politics, compromise, vote-gathering, and committee decision. Instead, Sun's open specification and feedback process, combined with a willingness to incorporate good ideas, has produced a language that is powerful enough to tackle enterprise projects, but that remains true to its original design goal to keep the simple things simple.

For details on JavaOne announcements and sessions, see JavaWorld's JavaOne coverage in this month's issue, as well as JavaWorld's JavaOne Today show daily. With this article, I hit on the show's highs and lows: "Java Advancements," "Best of Show," and "Biggest Mind Bender" highlights, and the "Biggest Disappointment" lowlight.

Java advancements

In the center ring, Sun, and JavaSoft specifically, paraded a plethora of advances, including remote method invocation (RMI); JDBC, the database API; JNI, a standard cross-platform interface for calling and being called by native routines, JNDI, an interface for a cross-platform directory and naming service; jars, compressed archive files for distributing multiple classes and resource files; JavaBeans, the cross-platform component architecture; Swing, lightweight, all-Java components; and the Reflection API for runtime interrogation and creation of Java classes. Announcements were made of agreements with Symantec for its fast just-in-time compiler (JIT) and Java virtual machine (JVM), an agreement with Informix, and a switch to compile a Java program into native code. In addition, applet signatures were announced, along with the capability to grant "trusted applets" the same kind of system access as a locally-loaded application.

Timelines were given for future announcements including an advanced, adaptive performance optimizer that will make compilation unnecessary, and drag and drop between Java programs and native applications (as well as among Java applications, as currently supported in version 1.1). In addition, the forthcoming Java Foundation Classes (JFC) were announced. These will let the developer choose a "look and feel" that is native to the runtime platform, one that is consistent with a Java-centric, cross-platform look and feel, or one that is consistent with a corporation's custom standard. The developer also will be able to pass on the decision to the end users, and give them the choice! Finally, fine-grained security capabilities are in the works, so users will be able to choose what kinds of access to grant to their systems, and to whom to grant them.

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