The Java Programming Language’s origins began with a n= otice to quit. Talent began leaving Sun Microsystems as the company lost focus and market share in a rapidly changing market place. It was in this maelstrom of confusion and ambiguity that inspired talented people to break the mold of = the proprietary computer market and forge their own vision. In this paper I will examine the history, original plans, purpose, and major players in the development of Sun Microsystems’s Java platform.
By early 1990, Sun Microsystems found itself losing market s= hare in the ever-expanding world of computers. Although Sun Microsystems’s mainframe market share was tenable, the future looked bleak as Microsoft be= gan world domination of the Personal Computer market. Patrick Naughton, a “well-regarded 25-year-old programmer with only three years at the company” (Bank, 1995, p.2) informed his boss, Scott McNealy, of his plans to leave Sun for NeXT Comput= ers. When asked to write his opinions on Sun Microsystems’s failures, Patr= ick Naughton rose to the challenge that only a man in no fear of losing his job would have.
In a twelve-page screed, Patrick Naughton laid bare Sun Microsystems’s shortcomings and proposed solutions. His e-mailed response, sent to the entire management staff and copied to every programme= r, started a chain of events that continue to roll to this day. In one of the = very first meetings to discuss the Patrick Naughton’s suggestions, a set of principles for a new project developed. As explained in an article by David Bank in Wired Magazine, the principles that fueled this project were: “consumers are where it’s at; build a small environment created= by a small team - small enough to fit around a table at a Chinese restaurant; = and make the environment, whatever it may become, include a new generation of machines that are personal and simple to use - computers for normal people” (Bank, 1995, p. 2)<= /a>.
A small group formed with the task of developing projects. S= un Microsystems provided this Green Te= am with space and financing to “anticipate and plan for the next wave in computing” (Byous, 1998). However, the exact focus on which project to undertake was diffuse. At a time when Microsoft dominated the Operating System and Application software markets and the Internet still in infancy, what technology would capture people’s attention? The Green Team’s answer was to investigate the possibility= of providing interactive content on a variety of devices and platforms.
Their first project, a prototype dubbed *seven, was “an interactive, handheld home-entertainment device controller with an animated touch screen user interface” (Byous, 1998). The device lacked buttons, knobs, or any other control visible. Operating completely by touch screen and animation, *seven was a several ye= ars ahead of everything else. “The reason *7 was able to control a wide r= ange of entertainment platforms and appliances—while displaying animation&= #8212;is that it ran on an entirely new, processor-independent language” (Byous).
This new language, named Oak by its programmer, James Gosling, was the heart and soul of *seven. Designed for the wide-ranging small electronics consumer market instead of a proprie= tary computer Operating System, the Oak programming language “had to be as dependable as a two-pronged plug fitting into an electrical wall socketR= 21; (Bank, 1995, p.3). The versatili= ty of the Oak programming language outlasted the *seven product, and other such products aimed toward the small electronic consumer market.
“In June 1993, Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina at the Na= tional Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois had released the first version of the Mosaic browser, and the formerly obscure World Wide Web began to take off” (Bank, 1995, p.5). By this time,= the Green Team became FirstPerson, a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems. However, t= hey were floundering for a profitable product. In the Oak programming language, they had a language designed to run on any platform, but not a profitable platform to run it on. When the World Wide Web exploded on the scene with t= he Mosaic Browser in 1993, an opportunity appeared.
The World Wide Web, coded in HTML, provides a static image f= or browsing. Since the Oak Programming Language’s purpose was to provide interaction across any platform, Sun Microsystems finally had a platform wi= th which to use its technology. “In January 1995, Gosling’s versio= n of Oak was renamed the more marketable Java”, and sine that time it beca= me one of the de facto standards for interactive World Wide Web content.
It is ironic to look back at the development of the Java lan= guage when one considers its original purpose. When the Green Team formed, they considered going around the computer market and concentrated on consumer electronics. In the process, they developed a programming language to work = on any processor and platform. Now this technology is not in the small electro= nic consumer industry, but in computers – the very platform it meant to replace.
References
Bank, D. (1995, December= ). The Java Saga. Wired Magazine, 3.12, p.1-8. Retrieved August 5, 2005, from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/= 3.12/java.saga.html
Byous, J. (1998). Java Technology: The Early Years. Retrieved August 5, 2005, from http://java.sun.com/features/1998/0= 5/birthday.html
History of Java 1