Joseph Ottinger

This article was originally published in print on December 3, 2003"Eclipse represents the worst of Java" Lately, there's been a lot of guff spouted about how Sun isn't joining Eclipse. While I understand the bitterness aimed at Sun somewhat, I think that this particular brand of ... (more)

JavaOne is here at last, and while it's not really my place or choice to issue a "State of the Union" for Java, I think we need to do some straight talking. Sun has, for what it's worth, given us a language and platform. It has restrictions and limitations based on a long-range ... (more)

It's hard to find great Java applications. Next month's JDJ contains our Editors' Choice Awards, and so far for me it has the feel of a repeat - even though I decided to focus on applications I've been using day-to-day outside my own personal development environment. That's frus... (more)

Joe Ottinger had the opportunity to talk with Amy Fowler, a senior staff engineer at Sun Microsystems and one of the founding members of the Java Swing GUI Toolkit, and discuss Swing, JSF, the JDNC, and some general trends in Java. JDJ: Can you tell us what your role is at Sun n... (more)

Two conversations over the past few days started a train of thought about where Java is right now, as did the settlement between Microsoft and Sun, the new JCP revision, and the new 1.5 JDK. One conversation was with the author of a messaging system, talking about the use of his... (more)

I am really coming around to Java Studio Creator. I spoke with Jim Inscore from Sun today about it, after detailing my initial impressions on it, and we spent some time discussing the product, its positioning, and its future role. For one thing, he never called it "Rave," that I r... (more)

We at JDJ really appreciate all the article submissions we've received lately. Topics we'd ideally still like to see covered moving forward include: JMX! Instrumenting for JMX is easy - and we've forthcoming articles on it. I'd like to see more in-depth treatment, though, as it's... (more)

Yesterday, Sun made an early access version of Studio Creator (i.e., "Project Rave") available. I downloaded it for both of my normal development platforms (the SPARCle, running Solaris, and Windows) and gave it a go. On first impressions, Creator is meant to be a Web application d... (more)

There is no magic bullet. Managers and developers alike have a tendency to look for a simple, one-shot solution to address a series of complicated issues, even while we all acknowledge that there is no philosopher's stone. That fails to stop us, though - the search continues for ... (more)

While browsing through a book on Web services (XML and Web Services Unleashed by Ron Schmelzer), some things jumped out at me. First, it's really scary how many options we have in Java. A few months ago Alan Williamson asked, "Haven't We Got Enough to Remember As It Is?" (JDJ, Vo... (more)

In the Java community you have two schools of thought: the zealots, if you will, who feel that pure Java is worth the attempt, and the compromisers, who feel it's more important to use Java no matter what. Swing against SWT is a good example of this: SWT is a compromise, where n... (more)

There's a J2EE tie-in. I promise. A fellow user mentioned something the other day about using libraries in Java. He said, and I paraphrase, that he simply didn't feel comfortable using a library if it couldn't be explained in one page. For the sake of argument, I'll assume he di... (more)

It's that time of year, when the air is crisp and cool, and lights fill the air with the glint of good cheer and renewal. It's when wishes are fulfilled; when revitalization is just around the corner. I'd like to take some time to share some of the things I'd like to see for the ... (more)

We tend to see the United States through a lens made up of its major population centers: New York; Los Angeles; Washington, DC; Miami; Atlanta; Chicago; and a few others. That's because these are the places that have things "going on," and as a result we get a skewed picture not ... (more)

Every month we're told again and again how Java is on its way out. A multibillion-dollar company tells us that, while hiring other large companies to say the same thing. One sad group of souls says it's because of Java's licensing, or the lack of features available in other langu... (more)

Sun's 10,000,000 developer mark is annoying me. I was surprised they had the gumption to say it in the first place and, as it sinks in, the implications are staggering. The implications aren't new, mind you - Sun also admitted they'd dropped the ball on marketing Java. It's just ... (more)

Chaos. Anthropomorphically speaking, it wants to go everywhere. Order. It wants to be everywhere too, and is willing to fight chaos to do it. Michael Moorcock used to write lots of fundamentally depressing books about this very idea, and you can see it everywhere today ­ politicall... (more)

(July 21, 2003) - Sun Microsystems released JSR 168, the Portlet API spec, for public review on Thursday. Along with this, WSRP (Web Services for Remote Portlets) was submitted to OASIS for consideration, and a tentative release date for Sun ONE Portal Server 6.2 was set, coincid... (more)

In my last editorial (Vol. 8, issue 6), I argued that we, as an industry, have too much innovation. We have solutions pouring out our ears, stuff we often don't need, yet we use it anyway. This month, I'd like to clarify that somewhat: we need more innovation. The seeds for inno... (more)

(June 17, 2003) - Lately Sun and The JBoss Group have been rather publicly sparring over the use of the J2EE brand, culminating in quite a bit of heat (and little light) in the press and in the blogosphere. It's been something I've watched for a while, because this kind of schism... (more)