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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rudedog who wrote (46051)	6/6/2000 2:51:00 PM
From: cheryl williamson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

rudedog, I would add that it is useful to have public debates about the management of the application platform between those who have a stake in its success. Even if there are differences of purpose and opinion about the direction of the platform, the attempt to gain a consensus among the participants is a real step forward in this business. You would agree, would you not, that such is the case with Java??? Changing the API at the whim of the publishing company is highly suspect, and it is becoming less acceptable with the introduction of Java as a standard. After all is said & done, I believe the whole industry benefits from standards that all companies can live with, even if they are not optimal. cheers, cherylw

To: rudedog who wrote (46051)	6/6/2000 3:35:00 PM
From: Thomas C. Kimmel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

>>> ...my point was that the operation of the use of Java and the Win32 APIs is substantially similar, and the stance of neither company is really "open". rudedog, They really are not very similar. Microsoft makes no bones about their stance: they, and they alone, will establish what interfaces are available to independent developers (while providing other, more functional, interfaces to their own developers and privileged partners). And it shows in the quality of the published interfaces. Sun is hesitant to make Java freely available (which may be what you mean by "open"). And they should be - they wasted considerable effort in the wars for UNIX standardization and they don't want to go thru those splintered times again. Other entities DO have input into the Java spec (one of IBM's biggest complaints is that Sun is taking credit for APIs that IBM designed and implemented). And that, again, shows in the quality. There are no hidden interfaces below Java - everyone plays on the same field. Or rather, will, when the platform is "finished" and robust. I eagerly await that day. I have spent a lot of my working life porting software and I'm tired of it. -tck