James Gosling has been described as starting one of the most powerful of the industry's contrarian currents into motion with the creation of the JavaTM programming language.

"The big thing Java does is it breaks the lock between software and hardware," Gosling explained. "We could say to ISVs, look, you can develop in such a way that your application works on our hardware, but it doesn't cut you off from the Windows platform."

Setting no limits and tying no bounds, Gosling said that his inspiration for Java came by taking a step back, observing and absorbing the changing context of computing during the mid-90s, which was shifting from centralized, disconnected data centers to networks.

"In some sense Java wasn't designed. It was more fitted into a context," Gosling explained. "A lot of people felt very bound by the way things had always been. One of the fortunate accidents of the project was that we decided that backward compatibility with anything was not something we would care about at all."

This is not a philosophy that Gosling, or Sun for that matter, normally promotes. However, in this situation, it broke through an unperceived barrier that has treated the IT industry to multiple new breakthroughs.

Today, Java technology can be found in 1.5 billion devices worldwide including 250 million mobile phones, 650 million desktops, 500 million SIM and smart cards, and 100 million other locations.

"The whole Java strategy basically let us live," Gosling said, referring to the freedom delivered by this independent platform that offers "Write Once, Run AnywhereTM."

In the mid-90s, the JavaTM platform was the right solution to address the newly emerging and rapidly evolving Internet. The Java programming language hit home for frustrated programmers attempting to work with languages that didn't quite address the Internet's unique needs.

"They didn't have a pervasive acknowledgment of the network, of security, reliability, heterogeneity, pervasive communication -- the whole networking thing," Gosling said. "We had just terrifically good timing. There were all kinds of issues, and we just showed up with the perfect answer to a whole list of problems. We stepped on a few toes to get the first [Java] release out. Then, the world really liked it..."

To read the complete interview with Gosling, visit:

http://www.sun.com/presents/minds/2004-0624 [...read more...]

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