SWAINE'S CAFE

Black. No Sugar. Extra Caffeine.

June 2007

When you're as old as the hills, you build up a complex and contradictory history, much of which lives in the minds of people whose paths you've crossed, toes you've stepped on, lives you've changed.

Why no, I'm not talking about myself. I don't know where you would get that idea. I'm talking about Java.

Also talking about Java are some people who knew it when, and have fascinating stories to tell.

Over at Java Developer's Journal, eight-year Javasoft vet Calvin Austin recently hailed the open-sourcing of Java with his recollections on the long, long history of the effort behind this achievement, in an essay he calls 'The Unwritten Story Of Open Source Java'.

Yet more recently, inspired by Steve Jobs' glib dismissal of Java in the iPhone context (and what other meaningful context is there, really?), utility developer and one-man software company Paul Kim tapped out a screed titled 'The Sun also Sets' (ominous, huh?) on his blog, Noodlings, in which he recalls being borged by Sun and Steved by Duke, and laments what might have been.

Recollection may be bitter or sweet, but it's usually a mixture of the two.

Posted by Mike Swaine at 05:22 PM  Permalink |

Last week I predicted that Steve Jobs would not use his WWDC keynote to announce that the iPhone will support Java, nodding to the wise guys at RoughlyDrafted.com ("the iPhone needs Java like... a unicycle needs an extra wheel.")

But despite a fair amount of rumor-mongering based on reading more into a New York Times article than John Markoff put into it, Jobs in fact not only announced no Java access to the most anticipated product of the summer but went further to say the device would have no SDK at all, and that anyone wanting to develop apps for it would need to deliver them as Webapps through the Safari browser. And, of course, made it sound like something you should be happy about -- until you got out of range of his reality-distortion field.

Reports of the sky falling were everywhere.

So what are we to make of the energetic discussions, like this one at TheServerSide, about the role of Java in developing iPhone apps?

The answer, of course, is in the name of the site: if you are happy writing Java server-side apps with client-side components of a nature that can run in the browser, then there is a lot to say about Java's role in iPhone app development. And with Safari being the channel to iPhone functionality, the logic of Apple's moves in releasing a Windows version of Safari that doesn't even try to be a proper Windows app and in creating, in Webkit, Safari-specific tags like canvas -- that logic is suddenly blindingly clear. It's all about creating powerful Webapps -- widgets? for iPhone.

Those apps would, however, be second-class apps on the iPhone platform. They wouldn't have icons on the main screen, they couldn't take advantage of device-specific features like multitouch, and they would only be operational when you were online.

Right?

Or is there another shoe to drop? But even if there is, don't you sort of have to program for the platform you know about, not for the one you hope for?

I dunno, I think I may need another dose of RDF to feel great about iPhone apps today.

Posted by Mike Swaine at 03:30 PM  Permalink |

Last week, Sun's CEO revealed an Apple secret in advance of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference.

When I reported on this unusual act of stealing Apple's thunder, I wondered how Steve would react.
It looks like Jonathan was plain wrong about Apple using Sun's Zettabyte File System in the next version of its OS, code-named Leopard, because this week Apple flatly said it's not happening. So what was Jonathan talking about? Will ZFS become part of some future OS X? Is a puzzlement.
Update 6/13: According to Engadget and other sources, Apple will support ZFS in Leopard, but just read-only on non-boot drives. Mac app developers who are already using it already know this. As one Engadget commenter put it, it uses it, but it doesn't inhale.

Posted by Mike Swaine at 12:45 PM  Permalink |

Even after they finished writing it, the authors of Rich Client Programming: Plugging into the NetBeans Platform were arguing over who the target reader was, according to one of the authors, Geertjan Wielenga.

Their conclusion, I gather, was that you don't really need to know a lot of Java, but you have to want to question your own being. Wielenga brings more Heidegger and Nietzsche into his Java programming philosophy than most developers, but I'm with him. Back in 1984, when I dug into Apple's initial Mac developer documentation, Inside Macintosh, in which every new concept was defined in terms of some other new concept, I found myself questioning my own being repeatedly.

Those who suspect that Apple and Sun are growing closer and may do some deals will watch with care the Jobs reaction to Jonathan Schwartz's announcement that Sun's ZFS will become Apple's new file system when Mac OS X 10.5 ships this fall. Steve doesn't like people stealing his thunder.

Whether ZFS (Zettabyte File System, developed for Solaris, open-sourced, 128-bit, eliminates volume management) actually becomes the file system for Mac OS X or is merely supported in some fashion is something we'll find out Monday, when Steve takes the stage for his keynote address at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference. I'll post an update after that.

What we probably won't hear from Steve Monday is that the iPhone will support Java, according to the wise guys at RoughlyDrafted.com, who assert that "the iPhone needs Java like... a unicycle needs an extra wheel."

What, iPhone's not a rich client?

Posted by Mike Swaine at 12:35 PM  Permalink |

One of the difficulties in talking about Java, whether you're comparing it to alternatives or arguing about its future direction, is nailing down exactly which Java you're talking about.

Java as a programming language has its strengths and weaknesses, its fans and its detractors. It has grown a few appendages in an attempt to continue to compete as the competition evolves from things that start with C to things that start with P, or other letters in that alphabetic neighborhood.

But Java has always been more than just the language. When it was first introduced, the team was focused on a general-purpose controller device, a web browser, almost anything but a language.

Today, Java continues to be many things to many people, even many things to Sun, including being a platform friendly to other languages. It's both a dessert topping and a floor wax. Here, I'll spray some on your mop....

One of the new directions that Sun is taking Java is embodied in Java FX, which Eric begins to explore in his blog, where he invites your views on this new technology. Personally, I think it's durable and scuff resistant and perks up anything from an ice cream sundae to a pumpkin pie, but YMMV.

Posted by Mike Swaine at 10:49 AM  Permalink |