Chris Campbell's Blog

You Can't Do That With Java

[We had some difficulty setting up my blog account; this entry was actually written early last week...]

This is my first-ever blog. Yep, I'm selling out to the blog gods, even though I once said I would never blog. I even gave up writing in my own journal a couple years back once I realized that each entry sounded exactly like the last - a basic recap of the days events and nothing further. So if my blogging devolves into a similar style, I'll give it up. But for now, I think these weblogs give us a chance to have more "face time" with the community. Many developers have complained that Sun isn't open enough, and I'd really like to dispell that myth by offering some news and thoughts from the inside. Making Java better is a community effort, and we're just one small part of that community. Hopefully you'll come to understand that the folks in the Java Client Group really (really really) care deeply about the concerns of all our customers, and we all really want to see Java succeed everywhere.

Anyway, on with the program. I feel obliged to do the standard JavaOne recap... Let's just say that it was 400 times better than last year's JavaOne. This year, the mood was brighter, the products were cooler, and everyone I talked to was incredibly stoked about Java again (must be the new logo). The sessions all seemed to go well, and we had a lot of good interaction with folks at our booth and at the client group BOFs. On top of all that, we finally launched the javadesktop.org community site, which gave me a release vehicle for the project I've been hacking on recently, known quite unaffectionately as "Mu".

Possibly the greatest news we've had in a while was last week's announcement of the Game Technologies Group at Sun. I've had various lunchtime conversations with members of the new team, and believe me, this is one sharp group. Their charter is to find the deficiencies in the Java platform that prevent developers from writing leading edge games entirely in Java, and then plug those holes. One thing that really makes me cringe is when someone says, "You can't do that with Java". Well, have you seen "Alien Flux"? Did you see the High Dynamic Range OpenGL demos presented by Ken Russell and Chris Klein at JavaOne? With the GTG's release of open source Java bindings for OpenGL, OpenAL, and input controllers, I think you'll be hearing that "you can't do that" statement a lot less. [Ahh, I'm overcome with memories of a certain Canadian children's televsion program.]

Another complaint we've received in the past is that we have many great media technologies (Java 2D, Java 3D, JMF, JavaSound, JAI, Swing, and so on), but they don't work all that well together. It's great to know that we now have this team dedicated to making all these components fit together into one coherent layer. If all goes well, developers should no longer worry about mixing heavyweight components with lightweights, playing back video in a 3D application, or using the flexibility of Swing to create an interactive heads-up display in a 3D game.

Well, this first blog entry was all over the map, eh? Next time I'll pick one topic and stick to it like maple syrup.

In my ears: "Electric Version", The New Pornographers
In my eyes: "Blindness", Jose Saramago

Comments

• More insider info please
  Not bad for a first blog. I would like to hear more on topics like the UI library integration team.

  Thanks, Lance

  Posted by: lancebyoung on June 24, 2003 at 06:25 PM

• More integration ...
  In fact, make that more generic. There was a lot of talk about unifying the different java platforms (J2SE, J2ME etc) at JavaOne, but none of the initiatives, or the JSRs, seem to be working in that direction. Has any team(s) been set up to do that?

  Posted by: sumitkishore on June 25, 2003 at 07:56 AM

• More integration ...
  I believe there are already some JSR's that are working to bridge the gap at the API level. For example, JSR 172 brings web services, and JSR 209 brings advanced graphics to J2ME. The proliferation of these API's should mean developers think less about writing a J2ME or J2EE app and more about writing a Java app. I'm sure there will be more progress made in this area over the coming year.

  Posted by: campbell on June 25, 2003 at 09:14 AM

• Need better imaging and mp3 support
  I really appreciate the efforts of the Java media teams however they have a long way to go. Only a few image formats are supported by Sun APIs and there are dozens out there. I'd like to see support for Kodak, Adobe, Jasc, Canon RAW formats etc which are very popular. EXIF metadata support, GIS GeoTiff and Vector formats like ESRIs Shapefile etc without expensive third party add-ons. When will JAI be a part of the JRE? Requiring software users to register with Sun to obtain the JAI library is a hassle. Also, losing mp3 support was a huge disappointment.

  Neil

  Posted by: neilmoomey on June 25, 2003 at 04:22 PM

• Need better imaging and mp3 support
  Hi Neil,
  The new Image I/O plugins shipped by the JAI team are a good start. We're hoping to start a project soon on dev.java.net so that folks in the community can collaborate on IIO plugins for other formats, like the ones you mention. The deployment issue you mention regarding JAI is a common one, and hopefully downloading of optional packages will be addressed in WebStart eventually. Thanks for the feedback.
  Chris

  Posted by: campbell on June 25, 2003 at 04:41 PM

• You can't do that with Sun JRE
  Alien Flux is written in Java but compiled to a native code EXE that runs without a JRE. This simplifies things for the average consumer and reduces download size, which is important for games like that.

  Sun really needs to allow for partial redistribution of the JRE if it wants Java to be widely adopted by Windows game developers.

  Posted by: dleskov on June 27, 2003 at 01:47 AM

• Need mp3 support
  I have been looking for mp3 decoding/playback support in Java - are you planning to implement it? Thank you.

  Posted by: thecarlos on August 31, 2003 at 01:13 PM

• Where vs. What?
  The problem is not "WHAT you can't do with Java" but rather "WHERE you can't do that with Java".

  I'd like to use the media api's to develop on my Mac PowerBook, but when I last checked, they did not work on Mac OS X. I'd like to experiment with J2ME development using the J2ME emulation tools on Mac OS X, but they don't work unless one uses MIDP 1.0 instead of MIDP 2.0. I'm sure there are other examples, perhaps for other platforms.

  So far, I've heard rumors that the delays are related to slowly evolving business arrangements between companies, not due to technical reasons. These business problems be due to licensing costs, lack of collaboration, different priorities, etc. Though some reasons are legitimate, the end effect is a slowing of the adoption rate of certain technologies and packages.

  Please post a response to tell us the progress, if any, that has been made since JavaOne 2003, in these areas. When the newer packages, technologies, tools, and releases are working on even more (all?) platforms, then more people will start to say... "You SHOULD do that with Java!"

  Posted by: acarwile on February 16, 2004 at 11:04 AM

• You can't do that with Sun JRE
  yes. I do agree with that. 22MB is really huge amount which is taking long time to download. Lot of applications are becoming huge just because of using JRE.

  All of our small applications are in the range of 5-10 MB. Hence JRE itself 4 or 5 times our base application.

  It would be better if SUN allows partial redistribution.

  Posted by: mskumar_apk on March 27, 2004 at 12:43 AM

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