Java - Nostalgia

Featuring: A Lookback to a 5 1/2 year old Presentation

In late Spring of 1998 I gave a presentation on Java to the consultants and developers at Calgary's S.I.Systems where founder Derek Bullen had me do one of his emerging technologies briefings to staff.What makes this "old"presentation so interesting is how much Java has moved in 5 years.

First Java is doing very well, thank you, if the IDC and TIOBE numbers are to be believed. And this success is being achieved despite the fierce opposition of Microsoft (the courts will decide how badly Microsoft stepped over the line in its much vaunted 'hardball tactics')

and two big 'give aways': 1)performance of Java systems cannot match compiled languages like C/C++, Pascal, and Cobol; 2)design requirements of Java's always objects, single line of inheritance (like Microsoft's C# Java-clone) putting a premium on well-structured program models. Despite these disadvantages, the core messages which Java espoused:

  1)write once deploy anywhere (we call it modes of deployment in the presentation);
  2)large scale object re-use with huge pre-built and user implemented class libraries;
  3)tighter language control of error prone security, memory, and concurrency chores ;
  4)plus new syntax/semantics for threading and exception handling;

have helped the language to win major market positions in server-side Web Applications development, embedded processing, plus emerging mobile and handheld processing markets.

So do take a look at the presentation and see whats happened in 5 years - hint J2EE, J2ME, Eclipse, and a Java Community Process a bit turbulent but remarkably more open than Coercion from Redmond or Fiat from Cupertino.