Introduction
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Your Guide to Java
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A Brief History Of Java From household appliance networking tool to Internet darling and back, it's been a helluva seven years for Java. January 1991 Java starts as "Oak," headed by James Gosling, intended to network household appliances. March-August 1993 Sun refocuses Oak for a Time Warner interactive TV project. SGI wins the deal instead. Another deal falls through in August. June 1994 FirstPerson (part of Sun) begins "Liveoak," again refocusing the technology for small OSs. A month later, the team retargets Oak's potential for the Internet and points toward Java's current function. May 23, 1995 Java launches at SunWorld 1995. The first company to endorse Java: Netscape. Sun makes available an alpha version of its Hot Java browser. September 18, 1995 Public beta of Navigator 2.0, with support for Java applets, giving Java a major platform and presence on the Web. October 1995 EarthWeb launches Gamelan, a Java resource directory and news site for developers. October 24, 1995 Java discussed in PC Magazine for the first time. "InternetWorking" column says Java is crucial for distributed computing, instant software upgrades, and making Web pages interactive, more seamless than browser add-ons. December 4, 1995 IBM licenses Java, making a commitment to Java that will extend to hardware and software. |
Why Java?
Does Java really matter? If you've been asking yourself this question, welcome to the club. Propelled by incessant streams of hype, the technology certainly has attracted far more attention than its few readily apparent successes would seem to warrant. Yet our look behind the hype clearly shows Java momentum is on the upswing--and in places that might not be apparent. In this course you may find the answer to the question we pose above is: Yes.
To be sure, the list of hyped expectations is not short. Java seems unlikely to displace Microsoft Windows as the dominant desktop operating system, as some had predicted it might. And the technology has not taken over the world of embedded devices such as cellular phones. NCs--the much-vaunted network computers that are supposed to simplify PC operation and management while lowering costs--are almost nowhere to be found.
What about Java's boldest, most fundamental claim for programmers, that of "write once, run anywhere"? This phrase, so central to the Java message that Sun has trademarked it, embodies a beautifully simple idea: Programmers could develop software once that would run on any machine and on any operating system--without modification or additional testing. But as any experienced Java programmer will tell you, "write once, run anywhere" is just not real in today's world, with its volatile virtual machines and dueling browsers, none of which implement Java in exactly the same fashion.
Even some of Java's earliest supporters, Web publishers eager to add interactivity to their sites, have backtracked. Their frustrations are twofold: Java programming can be resource-intensive (at least relative to HTML development), and the slow speed of most users' current Internet connections makes the download time of anything but a trivial Java applet (such as a ticker) too much to endure.
Okay, so why do we say that, yes, Java really matters? Because in spite of all that, and nearly four years after being thrust into the spotlight, Java is finally emerging in a tangible way. But rather than as a revolutionary technology, Java is emerging as a promising evolutionary one that will subtly but significantly change the course of computing. It's time to sort through the hype and make an informed decision about where Java fits in your future.
In this course, we evaluate the promises and the programming code. Java is important, but like any new technology, it is not a "silver bullet" that's going to solve every challenge you face.
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