Sun Microsystems Inc’s JavaSoft division has saved up all its announcements for the JavaOne conference, which started in San Francisco yesterday. Top of the agenda was JCA, the Java Component Architecture, which is supposed to ensure that anything built on Java works on any machine, Java’s whole point. Described by JavaSoft chief operating officer Jon Kannegaard as the moral equivalent of Microsoft Corp’s ActiveX, Java Component Architecture’s seven application programming interfaces include Media, Enterprise, Commerce, Security, Server (under the name Servlet), Management and Embedded interfaces, for use as a framework for developing robust applets and applications within Java. The project for developing these is code-named Java Beans, and they will be written entirely in Java, providing developers with the ability to write components once and run them anywhere. Java Beans is also designed to support OpenDoc and Microsoft’s Common Object Model (OLE) compound document architectures, plus HTML and LiveConnect, which means developers should be able to write Java applets from reusable components that can transfer functionality not only to other Java applets but also to non- Java applications. Also announced was the long-awaited JavaOS operating system, previously known under the code- name Kona, aimed at the embedded market and hyped as the fastest, smallest operating system for running Java. Acorn Computer Group Plc’s Advanced RISC Machines Ltd, Cirrus Logic Inc, Fujitsu Ltd, LSI Logic Corp, National Semiconductor Corp and Sun Microsystems Inc plan to implement the system. It runs in as little as 512Kb ROM and 256Kb RAM and Sun says a system such as one of the vaunted NC network computer devices – and presumably its own still unannounced JavaStation terminals – with JavaOS, HotJava, space for downloading Web material and applets, would need 3Mb ROM and 4Mb RAM. Development tools software houses such as Borland International Inc, Metrowerks Inc, SunSoft Inc and Symantec Corp are also working to integrate their products with JavaOS – see our JavaOne round-up. And JavaSoft has repositioned its HotJava product as a set of classes designed to be used to build intranet applications such as collaborative systems. The HotJava name was previously applied to Sun’s World Wide Web browser.
