To: david thor who wrote (7467 ) 11/18/1997 11:54:00 AM From: Kashish King Read Replies (4) | Respond to
Java is going to be the environment of choice in the enterprise. The Microsoft answer to Java may produce higher performance ratings but besides being non-portable, it leaves security and resource management issues directly in the hands of each developer of each component. This reasons are historical and extremely difficult to overcome without a total rewrite -- that's what they've been struggling to do. Not even Microsoft questions the technically superior design of Java technologies, but that doesn't get you in the front door without applications, components and services; and those don't get past the front desk without wide industry support without a 100% pure commitment from the major players in this industry, say, IBM for example. Guess what? Those ingredients are all in place. Java is here to stay and a virtual tidal wave of software is on the way. To ignore the existence of the wave and the destruction it will have on Microsoft bloatware sales is to ignore the truth until it comes crashing down on you. The final ingredient for enterprise users is the ability to leverage current software investments, access their existing data, et cetera. To do that in a way which is consistent with an object-oriented environment like Java or C++ takes CORBA. CORBA will provide a consistent view of resources from Java and/or C++ but it's primarily a bridge to older software systems. The issue of having truly distributed computing resources is, IMO, a secondary and less important issue for CORBA because that can be done using Java technology. That is to say, if you want to go remote do it with Java and use CORBA to wrap whatever legacy information it is you are trying to expose.
