Zealous developers confident of Java's future

San Francisco - Displaying the kind of zeal more commonly found among Macintosh fans, Java software developers at JavaOne said they are confident of Java's future cross-platform compatibility despite Microsoft Corp.'s alleged implementation of an "impure" version of the Sun Microsystems, Inc. programming language.

A few developers criticized Sun for dragging its feet with the release of Java tools for Linux, a version of Unix that uses Intel Corp.-type processors rather than Sun's own SPARC chips. But on the whole, most developers interviewed here seemed pleased with the way Sun has managed and evolved the Java platform.

Sun has charged Microsoft with releasing a Java software development kit optimized for its Windows platform, but this has apparently stirred little fear among developers that the software giant will disrupt Java's fabled "write once, run anywhere" capabilities.

"Java is a definite breakthrough that will last for years to come," said Knut Jorstad, a software developer at Intervett AS in Oslo. "It would be hard for anyone to ruin it now. It's passed the critical mass for becoming the standard."

Microsoft will be more likely to "break its own leg" than break Java's cross-platform capabilities, said Joni Suominen, a developer with To The Point, Ltd., of Helsinki. "I don't use any Microsoft products. It's common sense - why use a Microsoft product if it doesn't work the way Java is supposed to?" he said.

Chris Burdess, a software developer with Web Development, Ltd., in London, said he knows several developers who are steering clear of Microsoft's Java tools because they are unsure of their compatibility with other platforms.

However, Burdess added that he has used Microsoft's SDK and had no problems with it. "There might be [incompatibility] issues with packages that people don't use very much, such as RMI, but if you're just writing applets I think it's okay," he said.

Burdess writes applications for the Linux platform, and complained that Sun takes an additional three months to release Java tools for Linux compared to its own Solaris operating system. "Sun's impetus for creating Java virtual machines (JVM) for Linux has been a bit limited," Burdess said. Sun releases the source code for JVMs to only a limited number of Linux developers, he said.

Suominen, who also works on the Linux platform, agreed. He said he acquires Java Workshop for Linux from Caldera, Inc., which ports the tool set from Solaris. For the JVM for Linux, he must turn to another Java porter, Blackdown, he said.

Linux and Solaris are similar, and it should not be difficult to release products for both operating systems, Suominen said. "Maybe [Sun is] trying to be the Microsoft of the Unix market," he said. However, he added, "Unlike Microsoft, Sun doesn't sell bug fixes, they give them for free."

A few developers said they were relieved at Sun's announcement that it will lengthen the release cycle for upgraded versions of its Java platforms and tools to around six months.

"They realized they had to do something with these release cycles. You can't go into development if you don't know what platform you're writing for," said Thomas Wust, a programmer for systems integrator Systor AG, of Zurich.

However, Wust added, if Sun had not released Java API's rapidly for each segment of the market, from PCs down to embedded devices, Microsoft might have seized the opportunity to meet the need and released its own versions of the APIs, he said.

Sun expected about 14,000 developers to attend the show, making it the largest software developers conference in the world, said Alan Baratz, president of Sun's JavaSoft division, in his keynote address Tuesday.

Jeans, T-shirts and sweatshirts were de rigeur for most attendees, and Scott McNealy, Sun's founder and CEO, and James Gosling, a Sun fellow and one of Java's chief creators, both gave their keynote addresses in jeans.

As one smartly attired journalist took his seat for Gosling's keynote Tuesday, a voice from behind chimed up: "Oh, man, another dude in a suit at a Java conference."

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