 |
|
| Java/J2EE |
 |
|
||||||||||||
Java/J2EE
Technical PerspectiveSalesforce.com to Deliver Back-End Integration Tools You know the argument: SaaS applications are great for green field deployments but difficult or risky to integrate with those legacy applications where all the really important data lives.
With its announcement of ApexConnect an integration tool to connect on-demand applications to back-end systems analysts claim Salesforce.com has moved to stuff that bogeyman back in the closet and has given SaaS enterprise-level capabilities.
The company said its ApexConnect integration services would be built on Salesforce's Apex programming language for multitenant applications announced last month. The new tool would allow about 400 third-party applications on the company's AppExchange platform to work with legacy applications Web services and other on-demand applications.
Apex uses a syntax that most Java programmers will find familiar and allows any component or application created in it to be shared with any other application on the AppExchange.
BEA Open-Sources Java Persistence Technology
BEA Systems announced that it will open-source a significant portion of BEA Kodo its persistence engine under the name Open JPA. BEA which acquired Kodo as part of its purchase of SolarMetric in November 2005 will open-source the portion of Kodo that supports EJB3 (Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0). Kodo also supports the JDO (Java Data Objects) API. Open JPA is a set of Java persistence APIs that are based on the upcoming EJB3 standard. A key element of the draft EJB 3.0 specification focuses on persisting in-memory objects in relational databases BEA officials said. This means that transient objects like the contents of an online shopper's cart or airline ticket reservations can be stored permanently in a relational database and retrieved the company said. The plan is to have it [Open JPA] governed by an Apache license said Neelan Choksi former president of SolarMetric now senior director of product marketing at BEA.
Salesforce.com Takes Aim at Java .Net with AppExchange
Salesforce.com began its campaign to turn its on-demand customer relationship management service into a development platform for Web applications with the official introduction of AppExchange here Tuesday. The company rolled out AppExchange along with the Winter '06 edition of its core CRM application at the type of event that has become Saleforce.com's hallmark; it invited several hundred people to a small venue where guests are chest-to-chest packed six deep into corridors and hallways. This time it was at the St. Regis San Francisco's newest and trendiest hotel. With his usual evangelistic fervor Marc Benioff chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com talked about his company's plan for providing a common access point and development platform for many different kinds of Web applications. Our vision is to take killer applications on the Internet and transform that into a platform just as our predecessors did with the PC Benioff said during his keynote address. To do that we need a platform [where developers can] create and publish applications that are secure and scalable in global implementations with local [functionality] like currency. Also we want mash-ups like Craigslist integrated with Google. We want to have those mash-ups but a lot of them automating business. So we've been working on AppExchange.
Geronimo Application Server Project Hits 1.0 The Apache Software Foundation announced in mid-December that Geronimo 1.0 the open-source J2EE application server was ready for release. The news was sent out slightly ahead of the actual completion date however and Geronimo quietly remained hidden until the day after Christmas when the software was finally declared fit for public consumption. Dain Sundstrom IBM’s chief architect of Gluecode and a member of the Geronimo project management committee said IBM donated the initial Eclipse tooling for Geronimo and also donated code for Geronimo’s new management console. The latter code originally came from Gluecode which IBM acquired in May. Gluecode is a production-ready open-source Java app deployment platform. IBM has kept its contributors on the project.
Sun Microsystems partners with PNBIIT
As per the alliance Sun Education will provide its official curriculum in Java Technologies and Solaris Administration and its comprehensive instructional methodology to students of PNBIIT. The institute will in turn offer Java Technology certification paths and Solaris 10 - System and Network Administration certification paths to its own banking students/professionals and students/professionals from other banks as well. It will also offer the curriculum to college students and other IT professionals in Lucknow. Commenting on the tie-up Bhaskar Gandhavadi Country Manager Sun Knowledge Services Sun Microsystems said With Java becoming increasingly important segments like banking and financial services are seeking Java professionals in greater numbers thus underscoring the potentials of this great technology. He further added Sun has a proven track record in the BFSI segment and through this alliance we hope to familiarize individual students employees of the banking sector and other professionals in the sector with the latest technologies.
Sun Releases Open-Source Java Database
Sun Microsystems Inc. Tuesday announced a move into the database world with the release of Java DB a distribution of the Apache Derby open-source database technology. During a keynote at the Apache Software Foundation's ApacheCon in San Diego Tim Bray director of Web Technologies at Sun and XML specification co-editor said Sun was incorporating the open-source Java DB into the Sun Java Enterprise System and providing additional support for the database with the NetBeans IDE (integrated development environment) 5.0 plug-in. Simon Phipps Sun's chief open-source officer who was seated in the audience during Bray's keynote Weblogged the event. Phipps wrote He [Bray] announced that Sun will be including a distribution of Apache Derby in future releases of Solaris Enterprise System and that Sun's distribution will be called Java DB (IBM's is called Cloudscape). Phipps added There was a cool demo that showed Java DB running in a Web browser allowing temporarily disconnected use of a database by a browser-based application. This could be just what Ajax [Asynchronous JavaScript and XML] is waiting for.
Is Ruby Replacing Java? – Not So Fast I do not
Okay I have heard it all: Ruby On Rails (RoR) is so much cooler and simpler than Java EE. It allows you to write web applications 10X faster. And Ruby has nifty language features we can only dream of in Java. So Ruby must be replacing Java to become the next programming language just as Java replaced C++/COBOL and C++ replaced Fortran. Well in my opinion this kind of talk has some serious logical problems. First of all as the short history of high technology has proven again and again the superior solution does not always win over inferior ones. In fact the opposite is more likely to be true. The question regarding to Ruby versus Java is NOT how much more advanced RoR is compared with Java EE -- the real question is whether Java EE is good enough for most developers. The reason in economics terms is that the choice of a technically better programming language does not bring you competitive advantage in terms of overall cost and productivity. Instead it matters far more to have better requirement gathering better customer feedback better development process better trained developers and better development tools (e.g. IDEs). In software engineering speak the actual implementation of a system using a specific programming language has the lowest value in the value chain and can be easily outsourced.
Sun Offers New Java Tool Set for Free
Sun Microsystems Inc. announced its Sun Java Studio Enterprise 8 tool set at JavaOne Tokyo Wednesday. Sun Java Studio Enterprise 8 integrates the latest versions of the Sun Java System Suites and Sun Java Enterprise System the company said. And Sun is offering the new development platform along with Sun Java Studio Creator free to all SDN (Sun Developer Network) registered developers the company said. The new developer tool is available under per-user pricing supporting major vendors' deployment vehicles but is included as part of the Java Enterprise System and the Java System Suites at no additional cost Sun said. The new tool set features team-oriented collaboration; profiling and testing with integrated load testing; enhanced UML (Unified Modeling Language) support; support for mobile and wireless application development; Application Verification Kit integration; and support for J2EE (Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition) 1.4 through use of the NetBeans 1.4 IDE (integrated development environment).
C++ Poised for Its Next Stages LAS VEGAS—Shaking off its staid reputation the venerable C++ language is strutting its stuff here at the C++ Connections conference. The evolution of the language can be seen in the plans for the next version dubbed C++Ox in the acceptance of new open-source code libraries and the reception for certain enhancements to the language. In many programming circles the mention of C++ merits a big yawn. It's not that the language is retired since some 38 percent of software developers use C++ at least part of the time according to Evans Data Inc. But it's no longer perceived as cool. Certainly many developers think of C++ as static dusty unchanging. But C++ has staying power—it's 25 years old this year and has outlasted many other languages. It has done so largely by being reasonably good at a lot of things its inventor Bjarne Stroustrup said in his Tuesday keynote address. The programmer is now at Texas A&M University. That's a long way to travel for the language that Stroustrup originally envisioned as C with Classes which initially lacked virtual functions templates and exceptions. Or for a language that in its first commercial release was given a marketing budget of $5 000 to last for three years. (They spent $3 000 of it on a single party.)
Compuware in Tune with Microsoft Java Community
With a renewed focus on modernizing and maintaining the integrity of mainframe and legacy systems as well as providing deep support for distributed .Net and Java-based systems Compuware Corp. is making a concerted effort to shed its old-line image and show it can be closely allied with both Microsoft Corp. and the Java community without short-changing customers.At its recent OJ.X annual user conference here Detroit-based Compuware offered numerous examples of how it supports applications on a variety of platforms throughout the life cycle from inception of the idea through development testing deployment and maintenance.According to Mike Burba director of Compuware Application Development Solutions development groups need tighter alignment with the business goals of their organization which can be achieved through agility applications development methodologies testing and tools.Compuware is delivering that for .Net and Java developers Burba said. In fact Tommi White chief operating officer at Compuware said the company will offer a suite of products that spans both platforms for organizations that have .Net and Java Enterprise Edition environments.
Office Politics: Google-Sun Alliance Squarely Targets Microsoft Two industry leaders team up on Java a search toolbar and engineering. But it's their plans for PC apps that could shake up the market. Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy and Google Inc.'s Eric Schmidt former colleagues at Sun's Bay Area campuses are on common ground again. The CEOs last week revealed a partnership to cross-promote and distribute their companies' software in a deal that hints at something bigger. That something could come at Microsoft's expense.In a packed press conference at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View Calif. Sun outlined plans to offer the Google Toolbar as an optional download with its Java Runtime Environment under-the-covers software that's downloaded 20 million times a month. By hitching a ride on Java the Google Toolbar could show up on millions more Windows PCs. There's going to be a lot of money flowing both ways if we do this thing right McNealy said hopefully. Details of the financial arrangement weren't revealed. SmartAdvice: Use Java And WebSphere To Reengineer Legacy Mainframes Set guidelines that ensure easy technology transitions and migrations The Advisory Council says. Also to profit from RFID rethink business rules.
Question A: What are the best languages and platforms for reengineering legacy mainframe applications? Our advice: Selecting an application architecture (languages platforms etc.) requires careful consideration of business requirements your organization's future infrastructure efficiency and economics of the implementations and current and future availability and costs of expertise to develop operate and evolve business systems built to conform to the application architecture. Determining the best language and platform for a 20-year time frame can't be done with 100% certainly. Due to the impossibility of predicting 10 to 20 years of business requirements and technology evolution the best approach is to select the best architecture given what you know today and create an environment designed to adapt to change.
Sun Inks Largest Java Deal Ever With GM:GM will use Sun Java Enterprise System to build a companywid General Motors Corp. has inked a deal with Sun Microsystems for the largest deployment ever of Sun's Java Enterprise System the companies said today. GM will use the software to build a services-oriented architecture. The fact that [Java Enterprise] can be provided to us as a pretested and preintegrated system is very attractive as we seek to get more value out of our development investment says Fred Killeen director of systems development and the interim chief technology officer for GM. Spending dollars on integration of components doesn't add any value.
Sun Embraces Open Source IBM Loosely Embraces Sun
— SAN FRANCISCO — The banner news from the 10th annual JavaOne conference revolved around Sun Microsystems’ decision to release more parts of its Java stack as open-source software and a renewed commitment by IBM to support Java and port its applications to Sun’s platforms. Also at the conference which drew an estimated 15 000 attendees Sun announced that the Java Community Process had finalized JSR 208 Java Business Integration and the company was offering its implementation of JSR 1 the spec for Real-Time Java to hardware manufacturers. Sun also unveiled some additions to its Java development tool set. Sun Harnesses Power of Java for Enterprise Ever since computers became an integral part of commercial business activity tool developers have sought to make programming easy. The earliest efforts such as Cobol pursued the goal of enabling end-users to write their own programs or at least to write the software to generate their own reports. When this proved impractical vendors shifted toward tools that made programming easier for professional developers.During the past year Java vendors have heard an increasingly insistent drumbeat from developers: Simplify enterprise Java.
Java flows from the browser to the datacentre
Java's 10th anniversary marks the evolution of Sun's programming language from a tool to write fancy interactive websites to a fully-fledged development platform for enterprise computing. The product was launched in May 1995 when Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen and Sun Microsystems science director John Gage stepped onto a stage at Sun's SunWorld user conference to announce it would be available to the masses. Java was a programming language that would allow developers to write a program once but have it run on multiple operating system platforms a feature termed write once run anywhere .
Eclipse offers adaptable IDEs for Java and C++ programming work
Eclipse is a platform for building integrated development environments (IDEs) for Java and C++ programming websites and other applications. An open source project begun by IBM Eclipse is now supported by a wide range of suppliers and organisations including Borland Oracle Computer Associates Hewlett-Packard and the Object Management Group. In particular the project wants to involve tool builders to provide plug-in tools for Eclipse IDEs. The idea of Eclipse is to provide an IDE that can constantly evolve and adapt instead of being junked with each change in the focus of software development forcing user organisations to retool and developers to learn again from scratch. Outside the English-speaking developer community Eclipse has been enthusiastically adopted in Germany and Japan. U.S. Army Deploys Signature Java Applet For Financial Disclosure Management
Approximately 40 000 U.S. Army personnel worldwide can now submit their updated financial information online along with a legally binding digital signature using Infomosaic's SecureXML Java Applet. The SecureXML Java Applet allows them to access their common access card (CAC) based PKI certificates to create cryptographically secure W3C standard compliant XML signatures.
Development Platform Broadens J2EE Reach
Software tools to simplify and accelerate Web application development continue to evolve. Along those lines ClearNova is shipping a revised version of its rapid application development software platform ThinkCAP 6.0 that helps non-J2EE developers build and maintain Web applications. The ThinkCAP 6.0 application environment targets corporate business application developers with a wide variety of skill sets including PowerBuilder COBOL RPG Visual Basic and ColdFusion. Since ThinkCAP hides the low-level plumbing J2EE programmers can concentrate on business logic and services while business developers with Visual Basic or PowerBuilder experience can work on building pages page flows and visual components.
Sun pours two shots of Java
JBoss and Sun said on Monday Feb. 7 they have signed a new multi-year agreement for JBoss to support the Java 2 Enterprise Edition platform. The agreement is the latest agreement between the two companies. At a time when large proprietary vendors are moving to lock in users JBoss is more committed than ever to J2EE the Java community and standards that will ease development and use of Java technology said Marc Fleury chairman and CEO JBoss. Open Integration Tools Upgrade Due in March
Developers at the University of Illinois are working on a major upgrade to their Java-based OpenEAI project an Open Source alternative to expensive and proprietary ERP/EAI middleware solutions. The OpenEAI framework 4.0 is due for release in March is modeled after Apache and sports a wide array of integration-enabling technologies for architects and developers including templates business workflow rules and components for Java XML and ERP APIs.
The 4.0 upgrades on tap look to fill in support for XML Schema and key JDKs but also bring added testing visibility and management to the OpenEAI suite.
IBM goes mobile with shopping framework based on WebSphere
IBM is pushing its J2EE shopping framework with the recent announcement of partnerships with systems integrators including Active Decisions 360Commerce Cuesol MeadWestvaco Intelligent Systems PCMS International Retek Symbol Technologies and Triversity. IBM Store Integration Framework a comprehensive solutions framework for enabling the next generation of retail solutions based on open industry standards was announced at the end of the year and is currently available. Built specifically for the store the Store Integration Framework connects information processes and business logic both within the store and between the store and the enterprise.
Microsoft Exec: Windows Linux Squeeze Unix
Linux distributions continue to amass on the border of Windows Server's enterprise territory but top executives at Microsoft Corp. are not blinking. That's because the real battle for software growth this year they say will center on low-cost high-volume x86 hardware and drawing enterprises away from proprietary Unix. Sun reveals Java security hole
Sun has disclosed a serious vulnerability in the Java Plug-in technology within the Software Developers' Kit (SDK) and the Java Run-time Environment (JRE) that allows attackers to bypass the Java sandbox and Java applet security. The specific problem exists within the access controls of the Java-to-JavSscript data exchange in Web browsers that use Plug-in technology and allows Javascript to load an unsafe class -- something usually impossible. As a result a remote attacker could execute hostile applets to access download upload or execute arbitrary files as well as access the Java Virtual Machine user's network. Architected RAD gets an A in Gartner study
Architected Rapid Application Development (ARAD) is a new category of tools with a proven ROI edge according to a recently completed user survey by Gartner Inc. ARAD tools represent a middle way between the simplified RAD tools and the complexity of the Architected Model Driven (AMD)approach says Mike Burba a program manager for Compuware one of the vendors whose customers Gartner studied. It’s kind of a pragmatic middle of the road approach he says of ARAD. ARAD methods and tools are just beginning to achieve recognition by mainstream Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and .NET developers. Java and .Net are boosted
BEA and Enerjy Software this week are expanding Java tools efforts while MKS is focusing on boosting Microsoft’s Visual Studio .Net development platform. BEA is unveiling an enhanced version of its BEA dev2dev site for Java developers adding a collaborative development tool called dev2dev CodeShare. Based on the CollabNet Enterprise Edition development offering CodeShare is a bi-directional collaborative workspace designed to help developers share code and discuss issues.
WebSphere Gains New Messaging Engine Standards
IBM Corp. unveiled the next version of its J2EE application server last month overhauling the server’s messaging infrastructure and adding support for recent Java and Web services standards. Promised for December WebSphere Application Server 6.0 is expected to support J2EE 1.4 WS-Security WS-Transactions and UDDI 3.0. “Web services support is key in communicating beyond Java ” said IBM’s director of WebSphere foundation software Bob Sutor noting that many people refer to J2EE 1.4 as “the Web services Java release.”
Java integration spec announced
Sun Microsystems and several other suppliers will release an early draft of a specification intended to ease integration of Java-based systems but IBM and BEA Systems have dropped out of participation in the effort. An “Early Draft Review” of the JBI (Java Business Integration) specification is being released featuring new support from JBoss Apache Group and Iona. Also backing the proposal are suppliers such as Novell Oracle and SAP. IBM no longer participating cited a focus on other integration efforts. BEA did not respond to requests for comment other than to confirm it is no longer participating.
IBM WebSphere 6.0 adds J2EE 1.4 but users risk “lock-in”
IBM’s new release improves performance and implements the latest version of Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE). But customers risk “lock-in ” due to the array of programming model extensions now available.
Akamai offers on-demand J2EE business applications
For businesses that want J2EE Web applications without going through the development lifecycle Akamai Technologies this week announced the availability of on-demand Web applications. Akamai is providing customers including electronics retailer Best Buy with IBM WebSphere-based applications on a pay-per-use basis running on Akamai infrastructure including hardware and software says Kieran Taylor director of product marketing. It’s sort of service oriented architecture on an easy payment plan as he explains it. 'We believe there are three key components to SOA ' Taylor tells JDT. 'The app infrastructure then you need component applications and then you need those applications assembled together into a business service.'
Sun releases JDS for Solaris
Sun Microsystems has released a version of its Java Desktop System (JDS) software based on the Solaris x86 operating system a move the company is calling the first step in a long-term strategy to unify the user interface for Sun's Linux and Solaris products. The software which was made available on 5 October for users of Sun's Opteron-based wz1100 and wz2100 workstations is the first version of JDS to be based on Solaris instead of the SuSE Linux operating system but it will not be the last according to Susan Jeffries product line manager with Sun's User Software Group. You can see what we introduced last week as the first step in expanding the platform support for JDS and extending that user interface to Sun products said Jeffries. We're definitely merging to single user interfaces across the product line. Can Sun's JSC bridge Java complexity gap?
Enterprise Java development remains challenging but will Sun's new kid on the block JSC build support to challenge the might of Visual Basic and .NET? Java is generally perceived as being less productive and more complex than Microsoft technologies in particular .NET. However many Java suppliers have developed tools to bridge this gap. Sun with its Java Studio Creator (JSC) is one of the latest to hit the market. The number of suppliers providing a credible software infrastructure services stack to build integrate deploy and manage enterprise applications will stabilise in the next year or so but which should you choose? Sun Proposes Single Persistence Model for Java
Sun Microsystems Inc. has proposed a new single data persistence model for Java that will combine the core focus of two key specifications and give the Java community a single target to work toward. In an open letter addressed to the Java Technology Community scheduled for official release Monday morning but that began getting around last Friday the leaders of the specifications—EJB (Enterprise JavaBeans) 3.0 JSR (Java Specification Request) 220; and JDO (Java Data Objects) 2.0 JSR-243—Linda DeMichiel and Craig Russell respectively explained the reasoning for the reconciliation effort and called for community support.
ATG integrating e-commerce technology for WebSphere and Eclipse
Art Technology Group's Adam Belmont has spent the past year working to make it easier for Java developers to build customer-facing Web applications on IBM's WebSphere Studio platform. In July 2003 IBM and ATG announced an agreement to integrate WebSphere with ATG's technology for managing a customer's relationship with an e-commerce Web site. Since then Belmont has been working to make that happen. Building Java Business Processes Without Java Skills
Building new business processes that can be invoked over the Web gets complicated if the need is for more than a few new HTML pages. To make legacy systems supply services it's often necessary to use Java but not every company has a stable of Java programmers available for the work. Unify Corp.'s new release of its business-process-management system NXJ 10.5 is designed to supply the Java without the Java programmers.
SOA: From Pattern to Production - Sonic Webinar Series
With the flexibility to keep IT and business in close alignment service-oriented architecture (SOA) is the foundation of an agile IT infrastructure. How does the SOA vision make tactical change easier? What are your options for deploying an enterprise SOA now? Who has succeeded and what was achieved? Join this 3-Part webinar series to learn about SOA understand the requirements for an enterprise service bus (ESB) and understand how customers are benefiting from operational SOAs today.
Bridging the gaps from SQL Server to Java apps
With demand for Microsoft SQL Server connectivity for Java applications growing steadily and with many companies migrating their production platform from the 32-bit SQL Server 200 Enterprise Edition to the 64-bit versions of SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005 JNetDirect has added 64-bit support to two of its components.
HP Lines Up More Resources Behind Linux
JBoss app server and MySQL database will work together on ProLiant blade servers
Hewlett-Packard has expanded its support for Linux by guaranteeing that the JBoss application server and the MySQL open-source database will work together on its ProLiant blade servers running that operating system.
CA IBM Databases Join Open-Source Parade
IBM and Computer Associates International Inc. are handing over parts of their respective relational database technologies to the open-source developer community. As a result customers will get a better insight into how to clear integration hurdles when connecting the DBMSes to third-party software.
Sybase Microsoft Enhance Messaging Middleware
Developers of applications that run on mobile devices face special challenges since the software can't make a call to a back-office database when the devices are disconnected.
Increasingly complex mobile applications demand more options for routing database messages and integrating them with a variety of back-end systems to boost data synchronization and performance.
Sun adds to open-source Java IDE roster
Java as a programming language requires very good design skills. .NET programmers know this as well because C# and VB.NET are built on the same single-inheritance strictly class-oriented programming model as Java. It starts off simple but as the number of classes grows it can become quite complex with intricate dependencies.
Red Hat Readies New Open-Source Products
It's expected to launch a Java application server packaged with its enterprise edition of Linux.
Red Hat Inc. is expected to expand its open-source offerings at LinuxWorld on Tuesday with the launch of a Java application server packaged with its enterprise edition of the Linux operating system InformationWeek has learned.
Paving The Way For Web Services
Service-oriented architectures let companies lay the foundation for software that is fast to write easy to integrate and runs on a range of platforms.
EXP Pharmaceutical Services Corp. is in the business of collecting drugs that have exhausted their shelf lives at hospitals doctors' offices or drugstores--and destroying them. That way potent drugs don't find their way onto the black market. EXP also ships drugs back to manufacturers for a refund or credit to the purchasers who eagerly await word of their reimbursements.
Amazon CTO: 'We've Just Scratched The Surface'
If more of the information and processes that businesses have were exposed via Web services so developers could integrate them 'people would do incredible things ' Vermeulen says.
Sometime in the next few weeks Amazon.com is scheduled to release Amazon Web Services 4.0 the next version of the electronic retailer's toolset for developing applications that tie into its Web site. It's the next step in Amazon's strategy is to create a programmable Web site. Over the past two years 50 000 developers have downloaded earlier versions of Amazon Web Services. InformationWeek senior editor-at-large John Foley asked Al Vermeulen (pictured right) Amazon's chief technology officer about how the model works
Java .Net Tools Shaping Up As Battleground
IBM and Microsoft try for larger market shares; high functionality versus easy-to-use
IBM and other sellers of Java development tools are known for the sophisticated functionality they put in their tools to help support large teams of programmers. Microsoft's tools are known for their ease of use. Now each camp is trying to grab a piece of the other's territory.
Yet Another Thin-Client Scheme Is Launched
IBM has updated its Workplace application sparking renewed interest in the idea of centralized computing. Cost savings and better security are seen as big draws.
JavaOne notebook: Java community tension and reconciliation
There will always be some tension in the Java Community Process (JCP) observed James Gosling Sun's distinguished fellow and the software engineer credited with creating Java.
IBM adds new Java technologies to alphaWorks menu
Java developers who are not frequent visitors to IBM's alphaWorks Web site might want to give it a try as the firm has been adding as many as 10 new technologies -- many of them Java-based -- a month for free trial download in recent days.
AmberPoint Adds Web Services Management To Visual Studio
Express version of the software is in beta one of Microsoft's new Team System product
IBM Building Software-Quality Tools On Hyades Framework It says the move demonstrates its continued effort to use open source as the foundation of its developer tools.
McNealy Rejects Idea Of Open-Source Java Sun can nurture Java; McNealy challenges IBM to open its code and end its 'Java envy'
Sun Microsystems spent last week fending off new calls that it contribute Java as open-source code. Previous requests came from open-source programmers critical of Sun's grip on the language; now they're coming from two of Sun's largest Java business partners.
Sun launches Java Studio Creator
At JavaOne in San Francisco this week Sun Microsystems will formally launch Sun Java Studio Creator a new visual environment for Java developers.
J2SE - now Java Platform Standard Edition 5.0. - updated at JavaOne Details that point to a more mature Java are in store this week as Sun Microsystems features a new version of the Java 2 Platform at JavaOne in San Francisco. Known at one time as Project Tiger and dubbed J2SE 1.5 while in beta the latest version of the basic Java platform takes a big leap up in version numbering as it is being called Java Platform Standard Edition 5.0.
Eclipse rocks open source world Eclipse board names Mike Milinkovich executive director Mike Milinkovich is the first executive director of the newly independent Eclipse Foundation. Starting his new job at the beginning of June Milinkovich's first task will be the launch of Eclipse 3.0 which is set for June 21.
Eclipse 3.0 released On June 21 the Eclipse Foundation announced the availability of the latest version of the Eclipse Platform -- Eclipse 3.0 -- which adds an enhanced version of its Java IDE a new rich-client platform and the integration of Java Swing with the Eclipse Standard Widget Toolkit.
Ada joins Java as Aonix joins Eclipse While many Java toolmakers are members of Eclipse which bills itself as 'a community committed to the implementation of a universal platform for tools integration ' the newest member is also bringing Ada.
Study: Impact Of Offshore Outsourcing Is 'Exaggerated' The furor over offshore outsourcing is overblown and key IT jobs are staying in the United States according to a Meta Group report on IT staffing and pay issued last week. Outsourcing is a little bit of a myth Meta Group senior program director Maria Schafer says. In point of fact outsourcing had been happening for some time. While the best and most valuable IT positions generally are staying put a slowly improving economy hasn't yet been strong enough to overcome relatively stagnant hiring. It's going to be another six months before we see any real [hiring] vigor she says. The Meta study shows that employers pay IT staffers as much as 20% more than nontechnical personnel. Forty-five percent of the 600 corporate respondents say they pay premium salaries for critical skills particularly in the wireless security and data-management fields. Experience continues to sell. Internet-related specialists are in short supply particularly those with expertise in application development Java-application management and networking. However demand for E-commerce skills dropped slightly in this year's survey--15% versus 22% last year.
Quest unveils server-side Java components Aiming at the Java components market Quest Software Inc. has released Quest JClass ServerViews 5.0 a set of server-side Java components for adding charts and reports to servlet JSP and J2EE applications.
Red Oak Software Offers Free Version of Web Integrator; Full-Featured Enterprise-Class Solution Now Red Oak Software Inc. (www.redoaksw.com) announces that the development version of its Web Integrator(TM) product is now available at no charge. Web Integrator facilitates the easy and efficient programmatic integration of any internal Intranet or external Internet application transaction with any other application in the enterprise.
Adobe Unveils Document Process-Management Apps The new applications and software are designed to help manage document policies and security.
Adobe Systems Inc. is making good on its strategy to develop a comprehensive set of enterprise document-management applications built on a common platform. The company on Tuesday unveiled new document process-management applications and software for managing document policies and security.
Sun Teams With Fujitsu For High-End Computing Vendors will market each other's products; Sun also launching variable-pricing effort
Sun Microsystems last week revealed the missing piece in its corporate turnaround strategy that analysts believe provides a clearer road map to how Sun will address the spectrum of enterprise-server demand.
At JavaOne: Project Kitty Hawk kicks off Sun SOA strategy Sun Microsystems unveiled details of its plans to support Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) in its Java Enterprise System server software suite and Java Studio programming tools at last week's JavaOne conference. Enhancements to these products under Project Kitty Hawk will make it easier for developers to write a new breed of enterprise software around Java-based Web services company officials said.
JCP: A watched pot never boils The Java Community Process (JCP) is the group that shepherds all Java technology improvements specs reference implementations and so on. It has been around since 1998 and today has more than 700 individual and corporate members.
BEA To Emphasize Software As Architected Services
BEA Systems this week launched what it's calling its Liquid Computing product strategy which is aimed at getting business processes to flow through a company without regard for boundaries previously set by the IT infrastructure
Technology At The Top Business technology was a low priority at Safeco Insurance Corp. prior to 2001. CEO Mike McGavick brought in that year to turn around a slide in profits recalls that the top technology executive was far removed from the executive suite. The CIO reported to the head of marketing who reported to the president who reported to the CEO he says.
Service Gets A Boost Bobcat Inc. Executives hope that determining the best method to fix an ailing kid-steer loader or hydraulic excavator will soon get easier and faster. The maker of heavy machinery is giving service technicians at dealerships free access to a product encyclopedia consisting of service parts and diagnostic information via the Web and DVD.
Business Drives Developer Trends
The push toward simplified development and the desire to get software developers working more closely with employees from business units are behind several important trends in software programming.
Java Tools: The Next Battleground Five months after the Java Community Process approved version 1.4 of the Java 2 Enterprise Edition specification Sun Microsystems Inc. held a “kickoff” event to highlight community support for the new spec. It also pointed out the next Java battleground: tools.
Sun’s Project Rave draws raves Java Studio Creator the purported easy-to-use Java development tool due from Sun Microsystems this summer drew raves from some early users Wednesday morning albeit with reservations about the availability of components.
TeraCloud Introduces SpaceFinder Workbench v4.3 with New Java-based TCP/IP GUI
TeraCloud Corp. a provider of storage resource management solutions for mainframe and distributed environments has introduced SpaceFinder Workbench v.4.3 which includes a new Java-based TCP/IP compliant graphic user interface for storage data that extends graphic views of pool utilization down to detailed volume and dataset information. The added functionality is intended to help customers monitor and manage their mainframe storage inventory more efficiently to reduce costs and improve productivity across the data center.
IBM Upgrades Java Tools
With simplified development and broad platform support as key goals IBM Corp. Tuesday announced new versions of its Java development tools and its Rational suite of application lifecycle tools.
Sun rivals celebrate J2EE 1.4
Sun Microsystems marked the advent of Version 1.4 of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) last week at a press event in San Francisco that featured most of the big names in Java tools and application servers who gathered to discuss the impact of J2EE 1.4 on their products and markets. The app server panel included representatives from BEA IBM Oracle and Sun; open-source vendor JBoss Group; and two pure-play vendors: India's Pramati Technologies and Denmark's Trifork.
Free Help For J2EE And Web-Services Developers
Skyway Software is giving away Skyway Builder Personal Edition to offer a simplified interface for building Web apps and services. Skyway Software Inc. is giving away its software. Company executives want users to know they can download Skyway Builder Personal Edition from the company's Web site for free. The software which includes Skyway Builder Server and Skyway Builder Client is used to create Java 2 Enterprise Edition Web applications and Web services.
Software Vendors See Growth In Data Analysis
Data analysis and reporting are fast becoming critical components of operational and database software providing companies with alternatives to conventional business-intelligence applications from vendors such as Cognos Inc. and Business Objects SA.
Wily 5 application manager supports JBoss
By the time Lewis Cirne founded Wily Technology in 1998 it was already clear that there were too many Java application servers on the market. What was less clear was that these servers were beginning to spread in corporations and none of them came with much onboard manageability.
Where The Opportunity Is
The offshore-outsourcing debate often centers on how to save all IT jobs in the United States. But what about safeguarding your own career? The safest career move is to assume offshore outsourcing is a global megatrend that the politicians can at best slow not stop. So how do you make yourself indispensable?
In Short: Monitoring Java Apps On IBM WebSphere
Wily Technology Inc. has introduced seven extensions for IBM WebSphere to its flagship Introscope 5.0 software which monitors the performance of a running Java application. The extensions called PowerPacks can reveal whether an adapter from the IBM WebSphere Business Integration set of middleware is acting as a bottleneck.
Sybase Gets Into Real Time
Sybase Inc. has assembled a package of database software for collecting and disseminating real-time data. Sybase Real-Time Data Services captures data events or changes in a data set such as a bank customer making a large deposit and immediately propagates that information to a messaging system such as IBM's WebSphere MQ. The package available in May and priced starting at $29 995 per CPU includes a new release of Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise database Sybase Replication Server Sybase RepConnector and a Java Message Service message bus.
BEA IBM offer business process add-on for Java
They compete heatedly in application servers but BEA Systems and IBM Corp. agree on at least one thing. They want to link Java with the Business Process Execution Language (BPEPL) for Web Services. The resulting combination which they call BPELJ would enable the two programming languages to work together. BPEL was originally authored by BEA IBM and Microsoft as a mechanism for orchestrating business processes in Web services environments. The three companies submitted BPEL to the OASIS standards organization which currently has it under review.
Java Cheat Sheet From Oracle
Oracle is shipping a development toolset to help programmers who aren't well-versed in Java build enterprise-scale Java apps and Web services.
Cut The Complexity
Compuware's OptimalJ 3.1 simplifies Java development freeing programmers from having to code app infrastructure.
Sybase Software Captures Real-Time Data Sybase Inc. Monday debuted a package of database software for capturing and disseminating real-time data. The suite which includes a new release of Sybase's core database software eliminates delays caused by batch and polling data-management processes.
Oracle releases JDeveloper 10g
Oracle Corp. last week unveiled the first production release of the latest version of its Java and Web services development environment Oracle JDeveloper 10g. The new version previewed at last June's JavaOne conference and was later issued as a developer preview dubbed Version 9.0.5.
Java Wireless Middleware Once a novelty wireless technologies in the form of smartphones and PDAs have become commonplace. Short Message Services and camera phone services are advertised on TV every night. They’re not just Generation Y tech toys though. Businesses also are adopting wireless technologies to enable today’s mobile work force—and underneath all this lies wireless middleware.
Where The Money Is The Web was supposed to kill bank branches. Instead banks are spending billions on them as a cornerstone of customer service.
Microsoft-Sun: The Feud Is Over Microsoft Corp. built its empire on domination of the computer desktop while Sun Microsystems Inc. made its name at the other end of the computing world in high-powered workstations and servers.
IBM looks to boost Java apps analysis IBM on Monday will preview technology for structural analysis of Java application development projects. To be posted on the company's alphaWorks site Structural Analysis for Java (SA4J) is intended for software architects and developers to assess the architectural integrity of Java applications. The software can be used to locate root causes of potential architectural problems and provides for measurement of application stability; detection of structural antipatterns which are bad architectural practices; and visualization and browsing of the dependency web according to IBM. The dependency web function provides a schematic of relationships in software development. Impact analysis is also featured.
LexisNexis finds one world one platform
LexisNexis Miamisburg Ohio provides legal news public records tax and business information to legal government corporate and academic markets in online print and CD-ROM formats. The legal publishing arm of Reed Elsevier plc the firm has a strong presence in North America Latin America the United Kingdom and continental Europe.
Apache Co-Founder Never Considered Commercial Open-Source Company
Brian Behlendorf co-founder of the Apache Web-server project says he never considered building a commercial company around what has become the single most successful piece of open-source code. Apache powers 68% of active Web sites up from 54% two years ago according to Netcraft a company that surveys software used on Web sites. Apache has consistently captured market share at the expense of two formidable commercial competitors Microsoft with its Internet Information Server and Sun Microsystems with its SunOne Web server.
New speech technologies making noise
A key standard for building speech-based telephony applications VoiceXML 2.0 received a final nod of approval from the World Wide Web Consortium last week. The standard's official graduation comes just days before Microsoft is expected to formally launch its Speech Server products - which adhere to a competing standards effort - at the SpeechTEK conference this week in San Francisco.
JCP 2.6 opens Sun's Java process
A new version of the Java Community Process (JCP) designed to make developing Java standards more efficient and open to public input was unveiled recently by the JCP Program Management Office and Executive Committees. JCP 2.6 is more transparent more participatory and more efficient than the process has ever been said JCP executive relations manager Aaron Williams.
The Art Of Defining Software Requirements
In its annual survey of why software projects fail The Standish Group last year said only 54% of the originally defined features are delivered and nearly half of the delivered functionality isn't used. Often the problem is rooted in poorly defined requirements the group reported.
Bringing Web Services Down to Mobile Java; Sun adds XML SOAP to J2ME HotSpot wireless developer to
With the releases in February of new versions of its HotSpot JVM and Java Wireless Toolkit and the launch of the Java Verified application certification program Sun Microsystems Inc. claims to bring Web services to J2ME and to accelerate not only Java applications themselves but also the process of verifying compatibility with devices and carrier networks.
Open-Source Advocates Applaud Open Java
Eric S. Raymond president of the Open Source Initiative started it; IBM pursued it; and now Sun Microsystems Inc. is offering to talk with IBM about open-sourcing Java. And open-source analysts and leaders are delighted by this move.
Java made easier for VB developers
Visual Basic developers transitioning to Java and even veteran Java developers struggle with building the Web browser interface for their Java applications contends Eric von der Heyden managing director at Innoopract. Besides raising the frustration level as Java developers code Java Script HTML and the other languages associated with Web interfaces it can be a time-consuming and costly part of the project he said.
Innoopract leveraging Eclipse for Java development
Innoopract Informationssysteme GmbH on Monday is shipping its World Wide Web Windowing Toolkit (W4T) Eclipse Plug-In which provides a visual method for Java developers to build interfaces to Web applications. Functioning with the open-source Java-based Eclipse integrated development environment Innoopract's plug-in enables developers to build the presentation layer of Java server applications quicker than current methods according to Innoopract.
***************
Selling J2EE 1.4
In late November the Java Community Process gave Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4 its blessing. So now the question is as we wait for J2EE 1.4-compliant Java application servers and Java Database Connectivity drivers to appear what are we going to do with it? Job one for Java developers is to get the word out that J2EE 1.4 is available and can make a competitive difference for your customers over both earlier Java implementations and .NET. For my money Sun fell asleep on the job in spreading this message.
Room for improvement in Java app performance
Wily Technology recently took a look at J2EE application performance. The company undertook a benchmark survey to uncover user experiences and plans. The results seem to bear out some of the anecdotal evidence that -- after a number of years in the field -- J2EE performance still has room for improvement.
Update: Java tools effort aims to ease use cut costs
Assorted development toolmakers and large users have banded together to create yet another standards body the Java Tools Community (JTC) in an effort that founders hope will lead to the creation of a Java technology process that is more affordable and easier to use. Officials said the group which includes BEA Systems Inc. Compuware Corp. Embarcadero Technologies Inc. JetBrains Inc. Oracle Corp. Quest Software Inc. SAP AG SAS Institute Inc. Iopsis Software Sun Microsystems Inc. US Sprint and Verizon is also intended to spur along Java Community Process (JCP) efforts in the area of development tools.
Web Power: More Interaction Equals More Value
Paint manufacturer Behr Process Corp. saw an opportunity to use technology to make paint shopping online and in stores a whole lot easier for consumers. The company also wanted to offer highly interactive capabilities such as very quickly making slight changes of color or finding coordinating shades that stretched the limits of what many Web-development tools could do.
Update: Oracle Sun BEA head list of vendors forming Java Tools
Oracle Corp. Sun Microsystems Inc. and BEA Systems Inc. head a list of 10 Java tools vendors that today are announcing the formation of a community that they say will create and promote standards-based efforts to ease the building of tools that easily interoperate. By doing so the Java Tools Community (JTC) also hopes to ultimately ease development for users of the technology.
IBM offers sneak peek at J2EE 1.4 app server
IBM on Thursday made available a technology preview of the upcoming version of its WebSphere Application Server 6.0 due later this year.
The preview version available as a free download at IBM's developerWorks site affords developers a chance to work with the J2EE standard using the WebSphere Application Server code base. Company officials said Version 6.0 of the WebSphere Application Server will also serve as the foundation for several other IBM software packages designed for business integration portal and collaboration.
Era of Glasnost for Java
While 2003 could not be called the era of good feelings it was definitely a period of rapprochement for the Java community. Even the phrase “Java community” became more of a truism as Sun Microsystems Inc. ceded some of its influence to other members of its Java Community Process. In June the JCP revised the process itself so that potential changes to the language become available for public review earlier in the approval process
BEA Compuware partner on Java development
Tapping a familiar theme of late BEA Systems and Compuware on Thursday will forge an alliance intended to make it easier to develop Java applications. The companies plan to integrate the Compuware OptimalJ model-driven J2EE development environment with BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 an integrated visual development and runtime framework for Java. According to the companies the initiative provides a model-driven environment that allows developers of all skill levels to build and deploy J2EE applications.
In search of a gentler Java
Corporate managers bought into J2EE technology and tools in a big way. Now faced with the difficult task of building complex enterprise Java applications they worry if they can find enough skilled Java programmers. For their part Java tool vendors are trying to bring out tools that make J2EE much easier to use.
Rivals IBM BEA set to reveal Java specs
Tomorrow longtime rivals IBM and BEA will publish three new jointly developed Java specifications designed to increase application portability across both of their app server offerings. IBM and BEA survived a long battle for J2EE application server supremacy among several competitors and some observers were surprised when the two firms revealed the collaboration last week.
************
Sun still pondering Eclipse move
Sun Microsystems is pondering joining the IBM-led Eclipse open source development tools project for Java but still has some concerns a Sun official said on Thursday. The company believes it is good to have communities of Java developers thus it may be a good idea to join said Joe Keller vice president of Java Web Service & Tools Marketing at Sun. The invitation came to us from the Eclipse group. We're still considering it. We're still waiting for them to figure out what the invitation really looks like for us Keller said.
One Step Forward One Step Back
Sun’s in trouble. It admitted to a billion-dollar boo-boo in the last quarter. HP is offering its enterprise customers twenty-five grand worth of free services to switch to Carly Fiorina’s Linux servers. McNealy & Co. still can’t get their Linux and open-source stories straight. And then there’s all the Java fuss. Not all is doom and gloom however. Acer Gateway Samsung Toshiba and little known but popular white-box vendor Tsinghua Tongfang are now bundling the latest Java Virtual Machines (JVMs) with their Windows desktops and notebooks.
.NET Progress Worries Java
Eighteen months ago many analysts (including me) felt that .NET and C# would face a daunting challenge in the quest for acceptance and adoption. We felt that if Microsoft would ever enjoy a success with these products it would be through the same method with which it established Windows: initial limited adoption followed by a continuous stream of releases that tweaked the product until it was adoptable. Meanwhile the company would lubricate the product’s growth and acceptance with a pipeline of marketing cash.
************
Borland targets ease of use in next JBuilder Java IDE
Borland Software Corp. is setting the stage for next month’s release of JBuilder X a release that seeks to simplify the usually complex deployment of J2EE. Ease of Java deployment an objective of recent IDEs from Sun BEA and IBM would better position Borland's widely used JBuilder Java IDE for use by an even wider group of developers. Drag and drop are the watch words.
Rogue Wave Thinks SOAs Java
When developers think about Rogue Wave Software Inc. they’re likely to think about the company’s long-standing family of C++ tools such as the SourcePro component library or Stingray GUI kit. But Kathleen Brush is rebuilding the company to look beyond C++ toward the growing service-oriented architecture (SOA) market.
***************
A Foothold in Java GUI-Building Market
More specifically the Java tools company late last month acquired SWT Designer an application created by Konstantin Scheglov to ante itself into the nascent Java GUI-building tools market. Instantiations and Scheglov a regular contributor in the IBM’s Eclipse community will continue to have an ongoing relationship as the product is developed according to the company’s CEO Mike Taylor. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Instantiations sells the CodePro line of Java programming tools for IBM’s WebSphere and Eclipse IDEs.
***********
Microsoft extends support for its Java machine
Microsoft will continue to support its Java virtual machine through September 2004 a nine-month extension that will make it easier for customers to find substitutes for the software. The extension was largely implemented for the convenience of the software-buying world according to representatives from Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. Microsoft has recently been encouraging customers to eliminate its Java virtual machine (JVM) from their desktops notebooks and servers pursuant to an out-of-court settlement with Sun but the transition is taking longer than anticipated.
*************
The 2003 Java Pro Technology Roundtable
A day before the curtain rose on this year's JavaOne conference in San Francisco a panel of Java industry technologists sat down for the third annual Java Pro Technology Roundtable. For the next two and a half hours they debated the big issues facing the Java community—how to attract more developers to the platform integration and interoperability standards and innovation the importance of open source and managing the application life cycle.
Java panel pondering Web services portal proposals Proposals to boost Web services and portal capabilities in Java are up for imminent votes by stewards of the programming language according to an official at Java inventor Sun Microsystems. Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4 which adds Web services support and backing for the Web Services Interoperability Organization’s Basic Profile for Web services is up for a vote by an executive committee of the Java Community Process (JCP) in the next couple of weeks said Onno Kluyt director of the JCP program office at Sun. J2EE 1.4 will be voted on by the JCP Standard Edition Enterprise Edition Executive Committee (SE/EE) with results expected by the end of the year. Q&A: World Book CTO calls using Sun's Java Enterprise System 'a no-brainer' One of the first users to sign a contract under Sun Microsystems Inc.'s new per-employee pricing model was Chicago-based publishing house World Book Inc. With 300 employees the company is paying $30 000 a year for the Java Enterprise System. World Book Chief Technology Officer Tim Hardy spoke with Computerworld today about why he signed up. 7 Keys to Secure Java Software Despite regular announcements of security vulnerabilities in software products many programmers still tend to view security as a discipline that is separate from software engineering. For decades the situation has been best summed up by a half-serious comment a professor who teaches software engineering shared with me recently: Secure software? Now there's a contradiction in terms. With industry pacemakers like Microsoft launching software security initiatives and secure programming boot camps the situation may gradually improve. Even though Java incorporated some security features from the start it is still relatively easy to write unintentionally insecure Java programs. What can we do to keep our Java applications from appearing in today's steady stream of security vulnerability reports? Q&A: SOAP gains traction SOAP message processing and interop and that goes across the board. Actually it’s more than just IBM and Microsoft it’s the Java world as well as other worlds that exist out there. There are Lisp implementations for instance that are finding interop as well as WSDL and the WS-I basic profile they’ve defined. There are about a 100 partners if not more collectively collaborating on profiling how you do interoperability of SOAP WSDL and the basic Web services protocol. There are also numerous implementations deployed based on that interoperability. Two emerging Web-services standards are expected to improve users’ online experiences Two Web-services standards are emerging at the same time and are expected to radically improve the user experience on the Web through better interactions with Web servers and higher speeds. The little-known Java Server Faces will provide a standard way to build user interfaces for Java Web applications and open the way for highly customized and specialized components to be plugged into applications. Java Server Faces is still being hammered out and its first specification is expected “late this year or early in 2004 ” says Ed Burns Sun Microsystems staff engineer and co-chair of the Java Server Faces expert group of the Java Community Process. The Java Community Process is an industry consortium for extending the Java platform organized by Sun. Adding a build process In the early days of Java application development life was pretty simple. You would write your classes compile them put them in a package and send them off. Then came JAR files an easier way of packaging shipping and locating class files and their resources. However generating an application today is far more than just compilation and packaging. You have to write the code compile it generate documentation gather statistics test package deploy and sometimes generate more source code to feed the previous steps. Life is getting so much busier for the average developer. There is just much more to deal with. Linux rises to every challenge Despite the high-profile problems Linux has faced recently it is still the fastest-growing operating system. What is it that makes users flock to use it when they are threatened by costly licencing measures and doubts over security standards? Candice Goodwin discovers why Linux continues to gain popularity in the enterprise. Complicated legal wranglings and concerns about lack of user support and security have failed to dampen enterprise users’ enthusiasm for Linux. Once an outsider in the server operating system race Linux is now “a mainstream choice for many infrastructure workloads” according to research firm IDC. It has also predicted annual growth rates of 28% for Linux over the next three years. IBM refreshes Java tool IBM said WebSphere Studio version 5.1 will improve the productivity of programmers with faster performance and usability enhancements around Web page creation and administration. The tool is sold as an adjunct to IBM’s WebSphere Java server software for running custom-built business applications. The refresh of IBM’s flagship Java development tool comes as competition among tools providers appears to be heating up. BEA Systems recently launched WebLogic Workshop 8.1 which is designed to make Java programming much easier. Sun Microsystems too is working on a tool intended to make Java programming accessible to a broader audience of developers. And tools maker Borland Software is also filling out its Java programming line. What’s in Store for LinuxWorld As the Linux and open-source faithful flock to San Francisco for the annual LinuxWorld conference this week the legal brouhaha between IBM and The SCO Group does not appear to be having any effect on customer willingness to implement the operating system or vendors' ability to deliver for the enterprise. Linux experts say the show will all but ignore the SCO controversy and instead focus on the growing mission-critical position of Linux. Hewlett-Packard Co. Red Hat Inc. and SuSE Linux AG are just a few of the companies planning Linux announcements at the show. Linux Marches On The legal battle is expected to have little effect - save for being a hot topic of conversation - at LinuxWorld the first since SCO filed its $3 billion lawsuit against IBM alleging the company had inappropriately used portions of proprietary Unix code to beef up Linux scalability. Instead show-goers can expect to find a long list of announcements from major vendors that are pushing Linux into more-critical data center roles. IBM jumped the gun last week in announcing a pre-integrated Linux cluster. The cluster includes Linux on the company's new 32-/64-bit AMD Opteron-based servers packaged with network switches and storage. It also comes with IBM's new DB2 Integrated Cluster Environment which can support up to 1 000 nodes the company says. Sun SuSE Make Java/Linux Pact Sun Microsystems Inc. and SuSE Linux A.G. have entered into a global alliance that calls for Sun to preinstall SuSE Linux’s Enterprise Server 8 on its commodity x86 hardware systems while SuSE becomes a Java 2 Standard Edition source licensee and will distribute Sun’s Java Virtual Machine with all its Linux products the two companies announced Thursday. While Red Hat already ships the Sun JVM with some of its distributions it does not have a Java source license. Ann Wettersten a Sun systems software vice president told eWEEK on Thursday that the source license will allow SuSE to work with Sun on developing new applications and solutions with Java and continue to tune it for its platform. |
| Home | | | Feedback | | | Events | | | Privacy | | | Sponsor |