James Gosling, vice president and fellow at Sun, known as the "father" of the JavaTM programming language, answered questions submitted by members of the Java Developer ConnectionSM (JDC) Program.

According to Gosling, if it were possible to do anything involving the development of the Java programming language differently, his preference would be to make classes behave more like primitives, which would perhaps make operations like autoboxing less problematic, especially when it comes to issues like identity.

With respect to the features that come with each new release of the Java programming language, Gosling finds their number manageable and their character stable. What concerns him is the proliferation of APIs that have attached themselves to JavaTM 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SETM). Since each of these is the favorite of one developer or another, Gosling said, he would be at a loss over which to eliminate.

The trend in Java technology that interests Gosling most is its increasing use in embedded systems like cell phones, automobiles and other realtime systems that developers can build end-to-end. Here, using the JavaTM virtual machine makes a developer's job easier unless time constraints are very tight, in which case the Java platform realtime specification comes into play. He is also encouraged to see the effect of the NetBeansTM software project on developer productivity because of the success of the NetBeans software API that ties together such things as Unified Modeling Language (UML) and cogeneration wizards in the same platform.

Fledgling developers would do well to study, not just the Java technologies, but the refactoring and pattern books, as well as algorithms and their analysis, Gosling maintains.

Gosling also explained the distinction between interfaces and classes, noting that as the reason Throwable and similar tools are not used as interfaces. Every exception that is thrown, Gosling emphasized, must be associated with some state, which cannot be done with interfaces but only with classes. He characterized the practice of throwing general objects as a bad idea. Things that are thrown need to be things intended to be exceptions since they are not general data structures, he asserted.

Finally, asked whether it was possible to submit the Java technology bytecode to a standards body like the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA), Gosling observed that submittal had been attempted and was unsuccessful. ECMA had published a report, he said, which makes interesting reading. Version 12 of the ECMA CD will be available at the end of April.

For further information on the ECMA findings:

http://www.ecma.ch [...read more...]

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