[6102] in java-interest
Re: Microsoft's Java efforts
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (curcjoe@PIGEON.ECHOSTAR.COM)
Tue Mar 19 17:11:14 1996
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1996 14:57:23 PST
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Subject: Microsoft's Java efforts
Author: Java Interest <JAVA-INTEREST@javasoft.com> at INTERNET
Date: 3/19/96 12:40 PM
Hey all,
Picked this up in the mailbox--thought it might be of particular interest here.
Cheers,
Mike
>Return-Path: <java-human@mcs.anl.gov>
>To: java@antares.mcs.anl.gov
>Subject: Microsoft's Java efforts
>Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 20:58:44 -0600
>From: Steve Tuecke <tuecke@mcs.anl.gov>
>Sender: owner-java@mcs.anl.gov
>
>Last week I went to the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference,
>where they showed off their Java efforts (among other things). What I
>saw looked very cool. Here is a summary of what I learned about
>Microsoft's Java efforts:
>
> * Microsoft and Sun finally resolved and signed the Java licensing
>agreement the week before the conference.
>
> * MS is doing the right thing with Java (and they demonstrated most
>of it at the conference). It will be a first class citizen in the
>suite of MS language tools. And it will be a first class citizen with
>respect to COM and DCOM (their distributed object system).
>
> * The project name for the Java IDE (Integrated Development
>Environment) is "Jakarta" (a city on the island of Java). It
>includes:
> - A byte code compiler (.java -> .class), but where the
>compiler is implemented as native code. It is _very_ fast. Compiling
>Java classes is nearly instantaneous on a Pentium. And they claimed
>they can byte compile the entire AWT class library in 2-3 seconds.
> - Full Visual development environment, including VC++ like
>debugger, class browser, version control, smart code editor, etc. One
>cool feature is the class browser. They have a background thread that
>parses your .java source files as you write them, and updates the >class
browser on the fly.
> - In addition to the standard java class libraries, there will
>be a library of microsoft libraries.
> - Optimized virtual machine for Win32. They demonstrated
>their Java VM running in Internet Explorer 3.0, running Java programs
>2x faster than under Netscape.
> - Just In Time (JIT) compiler: A standard feature of their
>Java VM is a JIT compiler (.class -> object code). They demonstrated
>this from IE3.0 also, and it totally blew away the interpreted VM.
>They said they are seeing a 40x improvement over their VM.
> - Native code compiler (.java -> .o or .java -> .dll). All
>Java classes will automatically compile to COM classes.
>
> * Java is fully integrated with COM:
> - From Java, COM objects are first class objects. You can
>instantiate and call COM objects just like native Java objects. You
>just need to import an appropriate class library for the COM object
>you wish to use.
> - Java type casting implicitly performs a COM
>QueryInterface().
> - You do not have to explicitly implement or perform the COM
>AddRef() or ReleaseRef() methods. They have transparently integrated
>this functionality into the garbage collector.
> - DCOM just works with Java.
>
> * Java VM _is_ and ActiveX control. In other words, the Java VM,
>including the JIT compiler, is a COM object in all of its glory. So
>any Win32 application, no matter what language it is written in, can
>embed Java easily. In addition, MS is extending the Java Applet
>framework to transparently interoperate with Win32 events and
>display.
>
> * Availability: Beta of whole development environment in 2Q96,
>shipping in 3Q96. Java VM with JIT will also be in Internet Explorer
>3.0. They were demonstrating alpha versions of everything at the
>conference.
>
>
>Winsock2
>========
>
> * Winsock2 is a major upgrade to the Winsock1.1 interface. It was
>designed by a large consortium of companies, including MS. Some of
>the new features supported by Winsock 2 are:
> - Multiple protocols: MS will support at least TCP/IP and
>IPX/SPX in their version of Winsock2. All of these protocols lie
>under a common, stream oriented (read() and write()) interface.
> - Multiple namespaces: This is an attempt to unify DNS, NDS
>(Network), NT nameservice, and whatever others under a single unified
>interface.
> - Socket sharing: You can pass socket access from one process
>to another. This is apparently to allow Unix daemon style
>programming, where a parent process opens a socket, forks a child, and
>then lets the child handle the socket.
> - Multicast
> - Quality of Service
> - A scatter-gather interface
> - Asynchronous notificatioin integrated into the Win32 event loop.
> - Layered service providers: You can plug in filters between
>the API and the protocol providers, so do such things as encryption,
>compression, message boundary marking.
>
> * Winsock2 is available now as part of NT version 4 beta
>
> * MS Bloodhound: This is an IP packet sniffing tool, similar in
>spirit to etherfind.
>
> * Blocking select() in Win95/NT is apparently _very_ inefficient.
>Instead, you should use the event tie-ins to get more efficient
>blocking select behavior. This was mentioned several times. It
>sounds like this should be avoided like the plague.
> In NT, you should apparently use "completion ports" for doing
>asynch notification of data availability.
>
>
>Security
>========
>
> * PCT is Microsoft's and other's answer to SSL. There are beginning
>to be efforts within the IETF to merge PCT and SSL into a single
>standard. Also PCT can fallback to the SSL2.0 protocol. Apparently
>PCT1.0 and SSL3.0 are very similar.
>
> * MS has a PCT reference implementation (PCTRef), which runs on NT
>and Linux. PCTRef uses RSARef. Netmanage (www.netmanage.com) is now
>shipping a WinPCT implementation, free of charge, as of this week,
>which uses PCTRef.
>
> * WinPCT hooks into Winsock1.1. The user "does not have to do
>anything". For example, since it hooks into Winsock directly, the
>users does not have to use special calls. (SSLRef requires you to use
>SSL_read() instead of read(), etc.) Apparently you configure WinPCT
>to kick in security for particular ports, or particular combinations
>of IP addresses and ports, etc.
>
> * CryptoAPI: This is a low-level, function based API which supplies
>encryption services. It is implemented as part of the NT kernel.
>There is a higher-level APLI called SSPI, which is "basically a Win32
>implementation of GSS-API." Custom crypto services can be plug into
>this architecture, while keeping the CryptoAPI the same.
>
> * SET (Secure Electronic Transactions) is a standard for doing
>electronic bankcard payment, developed by Visa, Mastercard, Amex,
>Microsoft, Netscape, et al. It uses very strong encryption (long
>keys), but is very limited (cannot encrypt a payload) so as to allow
>for export clearance. MS has a COM interface to SET which layers over
>CryptoAPI, and allows easy integration of SET into applications.
>
> * PPTP (Point to Point Tunnelling Protocol): NT now supports PPTP,
>to all construction of virtual private networks with "very strong"
>encryption (in the US).
>
> * MS and some 30 other companies announced this week a digital
>signature initiative. The purpose of this is to allow the "network
>equivalent of shrinkwrap software". The idea is to sign network
>loadable software in a standard way. Not only will complete
>applications be signable, but so will COM objects, Java classes, etc.
>Internet Explorer 3.0 will support this.
>
>
>Miscellaneous
>=============
>
> * Internet Explorer 3.0: This is a complete integration of Internet
>Explorer with the Win95 File Explorer. They showed alpha versions of
>this, with expected beta in the Summer and shipping in Fall.
> The idea is to remove distinctions between browsing your
>filesystems and browsing the web. So you can embed rich text context,
>COM/OLE controls (interactive display objects), etc into your
>filesystem.
> I'm guessing that you'll be able to do something like drop an
>index.html file into any directory. This file will control the
>display of that directory's content when you click on that directory
>in the explorer. In addition, that index.html may have URLs out to
>the web, COM/OLE controls, etc.
> This unified explorer makes all the normal controls available from
>both the current file explorer and internet explorer, such as property
>sheets, various views, forward and backward buttons, etc.
> The next stage in this process will be to integrate this explorer
>directly into the desktop. (It wasn't clear to me if this was part of
>IE3.0, or if this comes after that. I think its in IE3.0.) So
>instead of having passive background, the background becomes an
>explorer display surface.
> IE3.0 will fully support VBScript, JavaScript, Java, and DCOM.
>
>-Steve
>
>
>
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