March 17, 2000
Wake Up and Smell the Java
By Tiernan Ray
JUST LIKE PRESIDENTIAL candidates, journalists like to "go negative." It's possible, in fact, to view
the whole profession as an assault on the smug press releases of corporations ? a struggle by writers
to batter down the obfuscations and outright falsehoods intoned by corporate CEOs on CNBC. The
journalist is at work to reveal and inform, and in the world of technology, nothing accomplishes that goal
better than to tear down the chipper facade most media-relations departments generate.
It's a strategy that works sometimes ? but it's also given to its own forms of excess. Case in point: one
of journalism's prime whipping boys of the past few years, the Java programming language from Sun
Microsystems (SUNW). With the possible exception of William Shatner's resuscitation, no other recent
trend has drawn as much journalistic ridicule as Java. It's been pilloried in the press as a failed effort,
and in the reflexive environment of journalism, the damage has been assumed to be mortal, with many
writers figuring Java has been put back in the pot for good. Java's withering has become such a given in
the collective journalistic imagination that it has seeped into those "conventional wisdom watch"-style
blurbs, where the uninformed quick take becomes gospel. As one prominent consumer-finance
publication wrote last fall, "Java Programming Language: Hot, 1996-1998; Reason for chill: It never
threatened Microsoft's operating system." The latest canard is that the Flash programming language
from Macromedia (MACR), which is used to create movies and animations on the Web, could replace
Java.
All this naysaying is the price, some say, for hubris. But Java was actually introduced in 1995 by Sun
with rather modest ambitions of spicing up the Web; it wasn't until futurist George Gilder proclaimed that
Java would "sweep over the industry like a tsunami" that everyone began jawing about Java.
Be that as it may, I'm here to tell you that Java has actually made remarkable progress. Not only has
the platform matured substantially in terms of reliability, but Java is also now turning up in an increasing
number of Web-based software programs. Much of the original promise of Java is starting to show up.
There is the role of Java on server computers, of course ? a use that was not anticipated when Java
was first marketed as a technology for Web-page "applets." But Java is now popping up in every
conversation I have with young companies, and not just as a feature. Whole applications are being
written in Java. Callidus Software, a startup in San Jose, California, has written its entire program,
TrueComp, in Java. The software is being used by Ariba (ARBA), among others, to manage a worldwide
sales force of resellers. More server applications are being written every day that use Java to perform all
or most of the crucial functions. For example, wireless-equipment vendors Nokia (NOK) and Ericsson
(ERICY) are both using it as the basis of large server software called "WAP" gateways and application
servers. WAP stands for wireless application protocol, and it is the technology being promoted by
Ericsson, Nokia, and Phone.com (PHCM) as the means of letting cell phones browse the Web.
Ericsson and the rest are using Java because some of the promises Sun made are turning out to be
true. While Sun suggested programmers could "Write Once, Run Anywere," touting the ability of Java to
run on a number of operating systems, it turns out that Java programs still require some reworking. But
they can be transferred from one operating system to another far more easily than can software written
in other programming languages.
The thing that's new is how many serious, substantial Java-based applications are turning up on Web
sites. I'm partial, of course, to the many Java applications running on this very site, including the Map of
the Market, and an enhanced downloadable follow-on, the SmartMoney MapStation, which has a mix of
Java and other code but will be moving more and more to Java over time. Check out a similar effort, this
one devoted to financial news, at ABC's MoneyScope.
I work with something called a Bridge workstation, from Bridge Information Systems, to gather real-time
financial information and to cruise reports from financial analysts. This is a serious piece of equipment
for traders and financial reporter types, and it usually runs on a Windows NT computer as its own
stand-alone program. But Bridge has created a version of the program written entirely in Java. This is far
more than a "dancing applet": it's got real-time quotes being updated continuously, news, charts, the
whole nine yards. Funny thing is, it's actually much easier to use than the original version of the
program. And of course it's available from any Java-enabled Web browser. And it's not slow, not one bit.
I've written in this space about how computer applications are slowly migrating from the desktop of your
PC to the Internet. Some early examples are popping up on the Web, and what they're doing with Java
is amazing. You can surf to Halfbrain.com and get a spreadsheet in your browser written in Java.
VideoFarm.com has written an entire digital video-workstation program for film editing that can run in a
browser. There are even some great standalone programs coming out, such as Sun's own HotJava,
which is a very good Web browser for those of you looking for an alternative to Internet Explorer and
Netscape Navigator.
And it seems despite all the naysaying, Java may even be moving to the world of small, single-function
computers, such as cell phones and handheld organizers. The Special Mobile working group of the
European Technical Standards Institute (ETSI), a body within the European Commission that is
responsible for advising on technology for wireless networks in Europe, is recommending Java as the
basis for a set of fairly sophisticated applications running on next-generation cell phones, something
dubbed MExE, for Mobile Execution Environment. These programs would go beyond the WAP browsers
being sold by Ericsson and Nokia and Phone.com, and would offer on-board address books and other
code, written in Java, that would work with WAP and the rest of the technology out on the network in
interesting ways. Folks at Marimba (MRBA), many of whom are veterans of Sun's early Java
development, say that Java is also turning up on next-generation consumer devices geared toward
browsing the Web.
There are plenty of issues facing Java, of course ? not least the battles over who should control the
technology. Some, like IBM (IBM), would like to see Sun release its code and the specifications of the
programming language to an industry consortium. Others would like Sun to come clean and develop a
true open-source project for Java, similar to Richard Stallman's GNU general public license, which
governs projects like the Linux operating system, rather than Sun's compromise effort, the Community
Source License.
There are arguments for each of these views. Just keep in mind a couple of things. It's important for any
new technology to have a champion who brings a little order to things. Linux ultimately has Linus
Torvalds, its inventor, who has final say over what goes into the kernal of the OS; I'm not sure Linux
would benefit from being sucked into an industry consortium. At the same time, the debate may be
moot because whatever Sun does, Java is now much larger than its parent. It has real benefits that have
drawn companies to support the technology despite any issues they may have with the company.
There's a lesson here for us as investors, and for journalists: Much as we might wish to dismiss the
hype surrounding the Internet as corporate bombast, given a little time and a little patience, sometimes
this stuff actually comes true. |
