Journal 6: JavaOne and Trends in the Java Framework

Print-friendly Version

I learned a couple of things at JavaOne. I learned to not ask which technology will one day become the dominant programming framework, but how other technologies will one day come to integrate into the Java framework. I learned not to think of a world where all household appliances are going online, but a world where all of its people are becoming connected. In connecting the world via the Java framework, we have hopes of wiping out starvation, eradicating malaria, and saving thousands of children from dying each day.

Jonathan Schwartz is the new President and CEO of Sun. He's got strong vision and he is an outspoken blogger (the only Fortune 500 CEO to be blogging, so they say). Jonathan reported to us that there are over 3 billion Java-enabled devices in the world. That's 800 million desktops, 1 billion mobile phones and handheld devices, and 1.5 billion smart cards. Today, there are more Java-enabled phones and handheld devices than there are computers on the planet.

Ed Zander, President and CEO of Motorola, joined Jonathan to affirm his company's proud backing of and participation in the ongoing development and integration of the Java framework. Motorola is the world's largest shipper of mobile phones and the company will ship 200 million Java-enabled devices this year alone. They'll also out-ship the entire PC industry with their mobile devices.

The future of the network will be defined by mobile devices: Java-enabled mobile devices. This is very exciting news because, for one, Java is built on open-standards and is becoming open-source. Java developers are finding all sorts of new ways to collaborate and participate across the world, across boundaries of all kinds. The scope of what is to come is beyond our imaginations of today, but if one thing is for sure, it will have Java written all over it.

Right now, about one quarter of the world's population is connected. There is a powerful momentum at work to get intelligent communication devices into unconnected hands across the planet to facilitate communication in the admirable efforts to wipe out starvation, malaria and the like. Java throw this door wide open with its Write Once, Read Anywhere technology that allows us to get the technology out where it is needed with no compatibility issues.

JavaOne is the place for industry buzz. I listen for the dead-silence of a stadium, gasps for breath of air and overwhelming cheer for particular concepts introduced by keynote speakers. Here's what got my attention.

Java EE 5
Java Enterprise Edition 5 is the new Java standard (replacing J2EE 1.3 and J2EE 1.4) and is available for production use. It's exciting to me as a developer because it allows for easier build and deployment of Java apps. For example, annotations are used extensively (meta data rather than external XML files), a lot of boilerplate code has been removed, and deployment is simplified. This means I write fewer lines of code while building my Java applications. The technology is ready-to-go, you can develop apps with NetBeans 5.5 (Beta) and deploy on the Sun App Server PE 9. See http://java.sun.com/javaee/ for details.

Open Source Java?
As you may know, Java is an open-standard framework. The Java apps you develop in one development environment can be ported over to both other environments and various application servers, on all sorts of hardware and operating systems. But open-source is something different. NetBeans and the next-generation application server (GlassFish) are open-source and they bring about a tremendous amount of community involvement. In addition, Sun announced that the Java Studio Creator IDE is going open-source.

But what about the Java language itself? Will it be open-sourced? Jonathan brought Sun's Executive VP of Software, Rich Green, on stage and asked him the question. Rich responded, "It's not a question of whether but a question of how", adding to the cheering audience of 15,000, "So we'll go do this!" What he was referring to is the delicate balance of open-sourcing the Java framework, while maintaining consistency, value, and evolution. So stay tuned!

Changes for the Java Studio Creator IDE
Java Studio Creator is getting closer and closer to NetBeans in several ways. As I mention above, Sun announced at JavaOne that Java Studio Creator will be open-sourced. In addition, Sun announced that the IDE will be available as a "pack" included with NetBeans. (Java Studio Enterprise and Java Mobility will also be offered as packs.) This is exciting news, because Creator, already built on NetBeans, will inherit much of the new functionality and features available in the latest releases of the NetBeans IDE. For example, you'll be able to deploy web services. (Creator apps can currently only consume them, but you can build them in NetBeans. See this article for details.) and leverage collaboration services, including file sharing. (Look for this enhancement later this year.) Visit the Java Studio Creator site.

AJAX
AJAX (or "Asynchronous JavaScript and XML") was the hot topic that caused session halls with one thousand seats or more to fill in a snap and repeat sessions to get scheduled. Yet, Ajax is not such a complicated concept. We built AJAX apps from the ground up in minutes and got to see how IDE's like Java Studio Creator make working with drag-and-drop AJAX components a breeze. But the applications you'll end up with are powerful to the n'th degree. Take Google maps as proof, the definitive Web 2.0 application. This year, we'll be seeing a lot more happening with AJAX and a lot of really cool apps coming into form. For everything AJAX at Sun see /ajax.

In my last Learning Curve article, I built an Ajax app with Java Studio Creator and I learned some new information at JavaOne. The data contained within a web browser sits as XML in memory. The way AJAX works is by changing the XML on-the-fly through the XMLHttpRequest. It's a back-door entry into dynamically changing web pages without requiring page refreshes. One thing Ajax will allow us to do is merge server-side and client-side error processing. We will be able to finally validate forms by the server (instead of solely by the client) without requiring that data be submitted and a page refreshed.

Blu-ray
I was very excited to hear that the next generation DVD format just might be Java-enabled. There are two formats in competition: HD DVD and Blu-ray. Blu-ray seems to be taking the lead and it offers the most excitement because it runs Java apps. Imagine; the day may soon be here when almost every household entertainment system is Java-enabled and many of them connected as well. I got to see a demo DVD produced for Hollywood. The menus are so much more powerful, you get to see video on video (such as commentary over the film), and navigate the DVD via a powerful navigation system that makes you feel like you're in an editing studio.

Interoperability with other Programming Languages
I hinted earlier that I got the feel that the Java framework is already overshadowing many of the other technologies out there. JavaOne sessions and hands-on labs included .NET, Visual Basic and PHP interoperability sessions. I think we'll see more and more of this in the coming years. Java developers like us will still be able to code in other languages we're familiar with, which is very important for migrating and maintaining our libraries as we transition into Java or simply integrate legacy apps.

Visual Basic for the Java Platform
Project Semplice was revealed at JavaOne. Check their blogs for details on their session. Tor Norbye, a senior engineer at Sun who helped build Java Studio Creator, along with Herbert C and John Kline, lead a workshop and demonstrated how a Visual Basic app runs faster on the Java platform than it does as an .EXE. The audience didn't believe him initially so he did it again to prove it.

Java is the technological framework for our future. I like what Jonathan had to say in one of his blog entries. During the civil war era in the US, the locomotive companies all had their own railroad width and shapes, all designed to work with only their own rail cars and engines. Obviously, these companies either fell apart or came to comply with the standard that drives the locomotive industry today. I believe the same is true for technology. Java is emerging as the standard and it is apparent to me that even today, companies are feeling the pressure to be not only compliant, but reliant on it. It is an exciting time for us developers, because we are just starting to get a reflection of the power of this momentum. In the years to come, we just may look back at today the "early days" of an emerging technology framework and remark, "If I only knew!"

For more tech tips, articles, and expert advice for developers, visit the Java Studio Creator developer resources on the Sun Developer Network (SDN) at /jscreator/.