Write Once, Run Where?
By Michael Floyd
If you ask information-technology managers whether they're using Java, they'll likely reply with "not yet." Nearly four years after the Java hype began, one must ask the question, "Why?" Typical answers include the lack of sophisticated tools, slow program execution, incompatible class libraries, and just plain buggy code. Most of these problems can be traced directly back to "the keeper of the fire," Sun. For example, Windows-tool vendors complained early on that licensed source code to Sun's Java debugger would not even run due to bugs in the code stemming from reentrancy problems. Symantec, using its experience with debugging technology, was the first to solve the reentrancy problem and introduce a development environment that included a Windows-hosted debugger.
Sun points out that these are technical hurdles that, like the debugger problem, can be overcome. Nevertheless, two events threaten Java's future as the preferred programming language of the Net. First, as developers were questioning whether a language like Java should remain proprietary, Sun recognized an awkward situation and applied this past March to the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee (JTC) 1 to become a recognized Publicly Available Specification (PAS) submitter for its Java technologies. The PAS process is relatively new within ISO and is designed to introduce specifications into the standards process more quickly.
One might think that an open Java standard would allow other vendors to develop Java technologies without licensing restrictions.
