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".
Andreessen and Gage explained that these Java applications ran in a
Java Virtual Machine - a special application, nicknamed a sandbox,
that allowed them to run on any sort of computing device,
independent of its operating system.
In other words, the Java program, termed an applet, could be
delivered over the internet, or any network, and run on a PC, Mac,
TV, network computer, or even a smartphone.
At that time, the entire Java technology team had fewer than 30
people, and included James Gosling (pictured above), considered to
be the father of Java, Patrick Naughton, and Mike Sheridan. The
team had been investigating embedding Java into telephones, lifts
and trains, and was even talking to Time Warner about incorporating
it into interactive TV.
Embedded Java did not take off as the developers had hoped, but the
internet provided a better vehicle for the technology. The software
soon became incorporated into the then common Netscape Navigator
browser, as a technology with a small footprint that could run web
applications on any hardware platform.
Some of the early Java applets that gained popularity were website
banner ads, web-based forms, three-dimensional graphics, and simple
games.
Ten years from its introduction, what started as a media-centric
browser technology has transformed the IT systems of major
companies, including large retailers and financial services
companies.
Java technology has evolved to support mission-critical business
computing through the use of web services - the ability to run
standardised reusable components of code. It has achieved this most
notably through the use of the Sun platform Java 2 Enterprise
Edition (J2EE).
Where Java has not seen such great success is in dynamic client
environments, where rich content is driven to the desktop - so
called "push technology".
Today, Java-based software runs on servers in large companies to
monitor transactions and tie together data from existing legacy
computer systems. Many companies are using Java on their internal
websites to streamline communication and the flow of information
between departments, suppliers and customers, and for "front-end"
server processing of online applications and services.
There are now about four million Java developers and 1.75 billion
devices run Java code.
Java at British Airways >>