Covers database access, distributed objects, IDEs, and some notable products
Held within the friendly confines of the Moscone Center, a sold-out JavaOne showcased the fruit of a half-year of nuclear-grade hype. Unlike previous Java events that I have attended, the golden word at this show was “useful.” For the most part, the “Hey, look, cool!” and “Gee, wow!” vapor exhibitors have either faded away or adapted their nifty concepts to real-world, real-life applications.
Mirroring the mood of the exhibits, the developer sessions concentrated on real solutions to difficult problems. For the first time, discussions on managing the challenges of massively distributed applications outnumbered arguments over whether it would be cooler to make Duke (Java’s mascot) wave or jump up and down.
Here are the highlights of the show, as seen through this programmer’s eyes:
- Database access
There were several vendors offering Java database access solutions at the show. Most of the current options rely on middleware that provides a natively coded gateway between Java and ODBC-driven datastores. JavaSoft‘s JDBC specification is being widely panned as being overly restrictive, though most vendors stated that they would support it when drivers become available.
Promising architectures include Rogue Wave‘s JDBTools, which maps RW’s popular DBTools.h++ architecture to Java, and XDB‘s JetConnect, which seems the soundest of the Java-ODBC gateway offerings.
- Distributed objects
You couldn’t swing a dead cat on the exhibit floor without hitting a representative of an ORB vendor. Of those hawking their wares, I was most impressed with Iona‘s relatively mature Orbix for Java, which boasts CORBA 2.0 compliance and interoperability with Microsoft‘s OLE/COM right out of the box.
For distributed objects on the cheap, you can’t beat JavaSoft‘s Java RMI, which does not require an expensive commerical ORB to get most of the benefits of distributed object computing. RMI has the added advantage of coming from JavaSoft, which intends to roll RMI into the JDK, meaning that applet-based ORB clients will not have to download the ORB classes over the network, a major expense in today’s limited bandwidth environments.
- Integrated development environments (IDEs)
IDEs were also in bountiful supply at JavaOne. Borland‘s Latte and Symantec‘s Cafe are going head to head in this arena, with Cafe getting the slight nod from this reviewer at the moment. Rogue Wave‘s JFactory GUI builder showed promise by including useful non-AWT components such as an animator and picture box. RW’s lack of an established IDE code base from which to reuse essential components such as code editors may prove to be an insurmountable disadvantage in the larger IDE market, however.
SunSoft‘s own Java Workshop remains a profound disappointment, suffering from sub-par performance and a less-than-ideal user interface that feels more like a Web browser than a graphical IDE. Next‘s WebObjects didn’t particularly impress either, though it more properly belongs positioned against HTML IDEs such as Cold Fusion. Spider Technologies‘ slick NetDynamics would be my choice for this type of development, however.
- Other notable products
In addition to the items singled out above, several products caught my eye:
SunRiver Data Systems displayed a functional Java terminal, a low-cost Internet-only device similar in function to Oracle‘s ballyhooed Network Computer. Whether this idea pans out or not has yet to be seen, but the reasonable 00 price tag may be low enough to justify its purchase by families who already own a PC. Coupled with a low-cost wireless 24/7 Internet service such as that offered by Metricom, these ‘Internet toasters’ could put a Java-powered kiosk in every home.
Worlds Inc. showed their “Gamma” platform, an implementation of active VRML. Using Gamma, VRML authors can add Java-coded behaviors to their 3-D objects. For example, a VRML door could be made to open when clicked or a VRML waiter could be trained to take orders when approached. Gamma definitely falls into the “Gee-wow!” area, but it is also complete enough to create intriguing interactive worlds that could serve as an excellent interface for a corporate Web presence.
Rational Software Corp. was at the show, demonstrating Rational Rose for Java, a round-trip OO analysis and design tool that not only generates Java code, but also reengineers object models from Java bytecodes. It was not difficult to appreciate the juxtaposition of the suit-clad academics from Rational exhibiting in the same hall with packs of “engineers without a cause” in their T-shirts.
