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To: Captain Jack who wrote (31590)	6/15/1999 1:45:00 AM
From: Dennis C	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 45548

Sun to unveil pact for Java on PalmPilot By Therese Poletti SAN FRANCISCO, June 14 (Reuters) - Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to announce on Tuesday a pact with 3Com Corp. to use its Java programming language with the popular PalmPilot hand-held computer as it seeks to boost Java's use in consumer devi Java programming language with the popular PalmPilot hand-held computer as it seeks to boost Java's use in consumer devi ces. The move is part of Sun's plan to rally developers around its Java programming language at its JavaOne conference this week by putting it on everything from small computing devices to very large corporate servers. Since Java was first launched in 1995, Sun has touted it as a language that developers can use to write an application once that will run most kinds of computer systems. So far, though, while Sun has announced many deals for Java-based consumer wireless devices or set-top boxes with companies like Motorola Inc. and set-top box makers, Java is mostly being used in corporate computing as the glue to connect many diverse computing systems. ''We have not had any implementation of Java on Palm Computing devices or other wireless devices like cell phones or two-way pagers,'' said Alan Baratz, now president of Sun's software products. ''We needed a smaller version of the Java platform that fit into a smaller device.'' A common complaint among Sun developers is that Java is too big and memory-intensive for designing applications for smaller devices. At JavaOne in March 1997, Sun launched a version of Java that was supposed to answer those needs, called Personal Java, targeted to the developers of applications for network computers, smart telephones and television set-top boxes. Baratz said Personal Java, which he said was designed for stand-alone computing, would now be incorporated into industry-specific profiles that can be used in Java 2 Micro Edition -- for example, a version for a set-top box maker. Sun, based in Palo Alto, California, said a beta version could be downloaded onto a Palm Pilot starting on Tuesday and Java would be integrated into the next version of the Palm Pilot. Meanwhile, as Sun is touting a new version of Java to developers of applications for wireless devices, it will also announce a Java package aimed at developers of big corporate applications, called Java 2 Enterprise Edition. Baratz said examples of companies using Java to develop hefty corporate computing applications include International Business Machines Corp., BEA Systems Inc., Gemstone Inc. and even Hewlett-Packard Co. H-P, however, continues to develop a competing Java clone product, called Chai, targeted to developers of so-called embedded software for information appliances. The announcement of this rival version of Java at last year's JavaOne sparked a flurry of attention and also fears that the Java language was going to become fragmented, like the Unix operating system. On Tuesday, H-P plans to launch a new software technology called ChaiFreezeDry, which shrinks the size of a Java application by as much as 50 percent to 90 percent. H-P also plans to announce new customers of its Chai embedded software for the development of information appliance applications, including Hitachi Ltd. and Siemens, for next-generation products. ''We are not supporting it. It's a clone,'' Baratz said. ''End users want the real thing. They want Java technology from Sun Micro.'' Another Java clone company that will be demonstrating its software at the show is Transvirtual Technologies Inc., which has developed another embedded clone of Java called Kaffe. ''We think Sun's version is too big and too slow,'' said Tim Wilkinson, founder and chief executive of Transvirtual, a six-person start-up based in Berkeley, California. ''Ours will run Sun's version and Microsoft's version of Java, so developers can use it on any box they like.'' Microsoft Corp., a key rival of Sun, is engaged in a long courtroom battle over its license of Java. Sun alleges that Microsoft created its own Java products that run only on Windows, thus ''polluting'' the goal of Java. Microsoft is now appealing a judge's ruling that it must stop shipping all its Java products that are not compatible with Sun's. Microsoft funded part of the development of Kaffe, which is also known as a clean-room version, meaning that it did not use any previously existing Sun or Microsoft code. ''The only interesting thing in this announcement is that Microsoft is involved,'' Baratz said. ''Microsoft has been saying for a couple of months, maybe six months, that they were going to kick the Java habit. The 12-step program to freedom hasn't worked.''