SAN FRANCISCO –- Sun Microsystems appears to be getting bolder and more aggressive in how Java, the language that was supposed to be lightweight and easily portable, is meant to be used. In demos here at the Sun’s JavaOne conference, the company’s plans for Java are considerably more ambitious and complex.
Of course, this means more opportunity for things to go wrong.
Later, during a demo of upcoming Java technologies by Sun CTO Bob Brewin, the same phone crashed again. Brewin also recovered nicely, pointing out proof that it was indeed a Linux-based phone because it had crashed and the text from the reboot was on the screen. Version 2 of Glassfish, its open source implementation of the Java Enterprise Edition (EE) platform, isn’t even out and already Sun is showing off version 3. Brewin showed how the next version of Glassfish would load with just a 100 Version 3 isn’t due until next year. In the meantime, Sun is polishing version 2 for release later this year, and company officials announced a deal to add Ericsson’s Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) This agreement should trigger the development of communications-based features in Java servers, according to Ken Drachnik, community development and marketing manager for Sun’s Open Source Group. “What SIP does is enable communication protocols to be developed on the application server, so now you can take things like VoIP and instant messaging and develop those directly in enterprise Java applications,” he said. This technology will enable “presence applications,” which can locate a person based on their cell phone, which will likely have Java installed. It can determine the person’s availability, whether they are on the phone, and the best way to contact them. Another demonstration involved Project World Wind, a NASA project similar to Google Earth, except it uses the Java OpenGL API. As part of the demo, Sun did a mashup with Distributed Simulation Technology, or DiSTI, to show World Wind integrated with a flight simulator demo. Only instead of using a rendered world to fly around, the application used actual spatial data of the earth from NASA to render the world outside. Sun’s last demo was Iris, a JavaFX-based application that lets users drag and drop images from the desktop right to Flickr. Iris also allows users to take pictures from a webcam and post them straight to Flickr; enables a slideshow on the client computer or within a browser; and allows users to crop and resize images.
An attempted demo of JavaFX Mobile, the cell phone version of Sun’s newly announced JavaFX technology, failed during Executive Vice President Rich Green’s keynote speech. The phone wouldn’t work properly, leaving a frazzled product manager on the stage while Green improvised.
kilobit-per-second footprint, dynamically loading and unloading modules and components as needed.
Like Google Earth, the technology allows for zooming in on any spot on the Earth. Also like Google Earth, World Wind has an API that can be embedded into applications. In this case, it works in Java-based applications that uses the Java OpenGL to render instead of AJAX
