[610] in java-interest
Java: The Inside Story
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tientien Li)
Fri Jul 7 23:28:54 1995
From: li@deming.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Tientien Li)
To: java-interest@java.Eng.Sun.COM
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 1995 09:33:23 -0700 (PDT)
Hi,
I've just read the new SunWorld article, "Java: The inside story", over
the long weekend. It's a very good article and is highly recommended
for anyone interested in Java/HotJava. The article is on-line at:
http://www.sun.com:80/sunworldonline/swol-07-1995/swol-07-java.html
In fact, I'll recommend the java home page to added a link pointing
to it.
After reading it, I've a few questions/comments:
1) The key concept that attract me to move over to the Java/HotJava camp
is "downloadable applets". Yes, Java is a nice language and HotJava
is a good browser. However, without the idea of "downloadable applets"
java is just another language and HotJava is yet just another browser.
The article didn't identify when the concept of "downloadable applets"
was evolved. Was it a part of the original "Green" project? or was it
introduced in Naughton's 1st Java Web browser that he did over a
weekend? Without an infrastructure, HTTP/HTML in this case, the
client/server architecture and downloadable applets are not natural
concepts to evolve.
2) According to the article, there will be a new version of browser
by the end of summer.
".. It's the browser that needs work, and that's where the team's
efforts are largely concentrated. Gosling says it should be
complete by the end of summer."
However, reading this list suggests that Sun's also working on
rewriting the AWT library. It's unclear that Gosling's comment is
referring to works on browser port such as those for Win95 and
Mac, or works on browser components such as awt.* stuff. Both work
are important. One is to build the install base and the other to
solidify Java's library and environment. I hope Sun success on
doing both.
3) The article suggest that after the browser "the authoring tools"
will be Sun's biggest challenge. I agree. We need a Java development
environment with at least a debugger and a GUI builder. Sun
already has all the technology on hand, e.g., the old "Guide"
can be added with a Java/AWT backend, or maybe even better, the
new "OpenStep" can add Java/AWT to its long TODO list. I hope Sun
already started working on these tools not wait till the end of
summer.
--
Tientien Li
li@deming.jpl.nasa.gov
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