Developers stood to benefit as Sun Microsystems Inc. came to the annual JavaOne conference last month in San Francisco armed with new developer tools and resources in an effort to attract more programmers to the Java language.
Tools such as Project Rave for Java technology deployment; Java Specification Request (JSR) 223, to bridge various languages, and java.net, a community for developers, were among the initiatives Sun announced.
By deploying tools that focus on ease of use and a new branding initiative, Sun aims to increase number of Java developers to 10 million - up from the current 3 million - within the next few years, said Rich Green, Sun vice-president of developer platforms.
"If we want to grow," Green said, "we need to spend more time looking at the segments [of developers]."
But the competition says the battle is going to be a tough one.
"When I look at what Sun is doing, I think Microsoft is very flattered that they're trying to reach the tools that we've achieved in terms of productivity," said Mississauga, Ont.-based Lenny Louis, product manager of .Net developer tools with Microsoft Canada Co. in Mississauga, Ont. "For Sun to try to match this, this is a great goal, but you know looking at their track record they're going to have a long way to go because we've catered our company to building and making devel-opers successful from the onset."
Green said Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun plans to focus attention on corporate developers in an effort to steer Java away from the perception in the industry that the programming language is only for high-level developers.
Project Rave, code-named Hammerhead, incorporates the JavaServer Faces Web APIs and database connectivity technologies to allow developers to build Web-based applications rapidly, according to the company.
Wayne Pau, chief technology officer of Wiredtime.com in Kitchener, Ont., said he is very interested in the Rave product. "Our solutions are always changing and the economics of our company only work in large volumes and by keeping the overhead low," Pau said. "If we can buy something, if we can grab something, if we can take something - we'd rather do that than build it ourselves. Why reinvent the wheel?"
Tim O'Reilly, founder and president of O'Reilly & Associates said JSR 223 lowers barriers to being a developer. "The scripting language is a better way to talk to your computer."
JSR 223 and the intention of Sun to bring scripting programmers into the Java family is very important, according to Pau.
"As simple as [Sun] tried to make some of the language, Java still takes a long time to learn," Pau said. While many Java developers have been in the game for a while and are more proficient in the language, Sun needs to go after a larger portion of the Java stream in order to expand the Java world, he added.
"Those will be people who program for a living but don't program for a religion," he added, referring to the scripting JSR.
He says Java is moving quickly with JSRs, but Sun needs to pay more attention to things such as screen resolutions.
Sun also unveiled java.net, to create a destination for developers to go and contribute openly, collaborate on projects and share ideas.
Microsoft's Louis said many developers
are looking at the .Net option, where ease of deployment already exists.
"Developers have found problems with having to learn a different set of skills and programming concepts to build a wide array of applications," he said.
In the Java world a developer has to understand J2ME to build a mobile application. That same developer has to also understand J2EE to build enterprise applications, he said. "With Microsoft and .Net it's a single tool. It's what we see as the driving force for why developers are choosing .Net now."
David Senf, a senior analyst at IDC Canada Ltd. in Toronto said that while Sun has done a great job of mediating the Java process, traditionally Sun has not done a good job capitalizing on the goodwill of Java. Creating more tools will eventually attract more developers, Senf said.