Java Guru Speaks Out On Interoperable Tools Efforts

Gosling, who recently returned to day-to-day Sun operations as CTO of Sun's Java development platform division, is credited for the creation of the Java programming language in 1995. Speaking at Sun's headquarters in San Francisco Wednesday, he promoted the NetBeans open-source framework, on which Sun's Java tools are built, while diplomatically embracing efforts many see as competitive to NetBeans, such as the IBM-led open-source Eclipse framework and IDE and Borland's OpenTools API initiative.

"Diversity is a good thing," Gosling said. "A lot of what Java is about is encouraging new markets."

Of course, Gosling admitted that Sun has its "own horse in the race" to provide a standard framework for Java, NetBeans. Ultimately, he said there likely will be several Java tools frameworks available, as there are now. "Will there be winners and losers [in the framework arena]? Oh yeah, but that's a good thing," he said. "We want NetBeans to be one of the winners."

Ultimately, Gosling said the Java community will have to decide on a standard way to plug in their tools through APIs to those frameworks to simplify Java development across various vendor tools. "The goal is to standardize APIs so plug-ins people build on NetBeans will work with Eclipse" and vice versa, he said.

That may not be as easy as it sounds. Longstanding talks between Sun and IBM to create uniform plug-ins that would work seamlessly with both platforms formally broke down in November, though Gosling said the two companies have not stopped communicating and would be open to some kind of compromise.

Additionally, IBM has not joined the Java Tools Community (JTC), formed last week by Sun, BEA Systems, Oracle and seven other vendors and aimed at building those standard APIs that would allow vendors' proprietary Java tools to interact seamlessly within the jurisdiction of the Java Community Process (JCP), the panel of vendors that finalizes new Java specifications and standards.

Gosling said that it's feasible for the JTC and the JCP will come up with a common Java API that will allow third parties to plug into various Java tools in a year, with some early implementations available around the same time. However, he conceded that the progress of the JTC depends on how quickly vendors working within the group can come together to make API recommendations to the JCP, and then how quickly the vendors in the JCP will finalize them.

Some have criticized the JCP for slowing down the evolution of Java and giving Microsoft the upper hand with developers. This is because Microsoft tools are widely believed to be easier to use, particularly by third-party vendors that integrate with them. Microsoft alone is the steward of the APIs for its development platform. Standard Java APIs, on the other hand, are decided by committee in the JCP, and even Gosling admitted that some move along more swiftly than others to completion

Still, Gosling said he is "very happy" with how Java has progressed in the nearly nine years it has been available, primarily because the work of a community, while less efficient than the work of one vendor, ultimately creates a better product.

"In our world, lots of people are doing innovation in a lot of areas and it's hard to know which APIs are important and which ones [should be thrown out]," Gosling said. "Microsoft goes with the first idea that pops into their head... . So while Java's process is slower, we actually do things like innovation, testing, debugging. We have to pass a real, strong trial by fire and get millions of people to debate over these things."

In the meantime, work on the NetBeans Java framework keeps chugging along. In March, the NetBeans group will release NetBeans 3.6 with several significant enhancements, said Steve Wilson, engineering director for NetBeans.

The update will include a new look and feel to the GUI that will make it appear native on platforms like Windows, as well as a redesigned workflow so it will be easier to move from the code editor to the debugger and the GUI designer, Wilson said.

NetBeans 3.6 also will include code folding, which allows developers to hide and show different blocks of code according to their preferences. "Developers can collapse large methods into one line [of code] so they can focus in on the code they are working on," Wilson said.

In the third calendar quarter of 2004, another update, NetBeans 4.0, should be available that will be a "major leap forward" with the biggest changes to the NetBeans IDE to date, Wilson said.

Included in NetBeans 4.0 will be automated refactoring to allow for different types of code transformations, such as renaming methods, Wilson said. The 4.0 release also will support the 1.5 release of J2SE, code-named Tiger. J2SE is the standard for Java on the client.

Other new features in NetBeans 4.0 will be new functions around smart coding and quick editing as well as a new build/project-management system build around Ant, a popular open source Java build tool.

NetBeans wouldn't be a force to be reckoned with without the community of partners that have built tools on top of it, Gosling said.

Tools vendors Compuware, Openwave and Quest Software are some that have products integrated with NetBeans and representatives from these companies spoke in support of the software Wednesday along with Gosling.

"Because it is a backbone product, we encourage and have created a community of people that would build features on top of [NetBeans]," Gosling said.