Beyond Java - Bruce Tate [15]
The perfect combination formed by the relationship between Netscape Navigator and Java drove each company to new heights. Through Netscape, Sun was able to put Java in front of an incredible number of developers, nearly instantaneously. Through Java, Netscape could showcase smart applications that looked cool, and were simultaneously practical. The Navigator/Java combination seemingly solved the most critical problems of client-server computing: management and distribution. If you could install a browser, you could then automatically distribute any application that you wanted through the browser. Java had the perfect economic conditions for success. Java found an important ally in the bean counters that liked the manageability of the green screen, but the productivity and usability of the fat client.
Customers wanted solutions, and Sun realized that Java would give them what they wanted. Sun immediately saw the opportunity it faced. With the open standards around the Internet and the Java language powering it, Solaris on Sun servers would be a compelling, and even hip, alternative. Above all, Java made Sun safe. Because its virtual machine ran in a browser and on many different operating systems, some hard decisions didn't seem so hard. You could try out a deployment scenario. If you didn't like it, you could just move on.
The new jet stream was in position to feed power to the growing storm.
C++ on Prozac
When Lucene founder Doug Cutting called Java C++ on Prozac,[*] I immediately liked the comparison. Because of its C++ syntax, Java found an impressive waiting community of developers looking for a solution. They moved to add a hip Java, and Internet experience, to their resumes. They stayed because they liked it. Java had most of the benefits of C++, without the problems. The similarities of the languages made it easy to learn. And Java was liberating, for many reasons:
Java provided more structure in places that needed it, such as providing interfaces instead of inheritance.
Java eliminated the burden of pointers, improving stability and readability.
Garbage collection got easier, because the JVM automatically took care of abandoned references.
Java allowed a much better packaging mechanism, and simplified the use of libraries.
Java cleaned up problems like nested include files and macros.
Architecture
The benefits of Java went beyond economics and C++. I can still vaguely remember the first sentence that I saw describing Java. Sun said it was a portable, safe, secure, object-oriented, distributed programming language for the Internet. Those words were all buzzwords of the time. For C++ developers, Java underpinnings made significant strides:
The JVM allowed unprecedented portability. Many experts believe that the JVM, and not the language, is the most important feature of Java. Sun marketed this capability brilliantly with the acronym WORA. Java developers the world over recognize those letters as standing for Write Once, Run Anywhere.
Java published the byte code specification for the JVM. People who want to build their own JVM or build a language on the existing JVM standard can do so, or even modify byte codes of existing applications. Frameworks like JDO do modify byte code with great success.
While C++ allowed unrestricted access to application memory, Java restricted access to one area of the JVM called the sandbox. Even today, you see very few exploitations of Java security.
The Java metamodel, made up of the class objects that describe types in Java, allowed sophisticated reflective programming. Though it's a little awkward, the capabilities of Java extend far beyond the basic capabilities of C++. The Java metamodel