Maturing Java Gives Developers a Respite

SD Times - Java is a mature technology. In the eyes of many enterprises, J2SE and J2EE are reasonably well-understood specifications, with well-established brand names. Experienced Java programmers are readily available. And while few businesses are building or deploying applications on the embedded version of Java, J2ME, the technology has gained an early lead in the mobile device market, with deeper and broader penetration than the handheld-centric Windows CE and Palm OS.

Beyond plugging holes in the specifications, such as to provide a vendor-neutral approach to multistep transaction orchestration, and for publishing and consuming XML-based Web services, there's little pressure on Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java Community Process (JCP) to make radical changes. Indeed, Java developers may be enjoying the respite; it's hard to master a moving target, or build on a rapidly changing platform.

That's not to say that Java and its tools didn't change in 2002. The JCP passed quite a few Java Service Requests (JSR), including a key update to Java 2 Standard Edition. J2SE 1.4, which entered beta in 2001 and was approved by the JCP in spring 2002, updated the specs to support XML processing, 64-bit Unix and stronger cryptography.

Unfortunately, the JCP was not able to make progress on a full Web services specification within Java 2 Enterprise Edition, the platform version designed for servers. The current release, J2EE 1.3, does not adequately cover Web services, as it does not incorporate key protocols into the base platform. J2EE 1.4, which will fix that, was sent out for review in October 2001, but spent most of 2002 going to revisions, including two "proposed final drafts" in August and November. The specification is widely anticipated to be approved in early 2003.

The JCP also revised its own operating policies to allow open-source implementations of many of its specifications. Urged on by hard-ball negotiations by the Apache Software Foundation, Sun promised to stop charging open-source developers for the test kits required for JCP compatibility certifications, and even ponied up a $3 million "scholarship" fund to assist organizations (primarily Apache) to build open-source implementations of Java server software.

While the JCP deliberated on Web services, the J2EE platform vendors moved forward with their own implementations based on draft specifications and proprietary ideas and extensions. Most closely watched was Sun's own Java Web Services Toolkit, which appeared in June, but major competitors such as BEA Systems Inc., IBM and Oracle Corp. also released Web services extensions to their J2EE 1.3 app servers. Smaller players like Borland, Macromedia and Sybase proved themselves to be