Sun launched Java Studio Creator this week, a year after it first demonstrated the drag-and-drop Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) development environment at JavaOne 2003.
The company’s mission is to grow the Java developer community to 10 million developers up from an estimated 2.5 million professional developers, with a package that is sufficiently easy for non J2EE experts in business or Visual Basic. Sun this week claimed 40,000 downloads of Java Studio Creator during the last 60 days.
J2EE heavyweights BEA Systems Inc and Borland Software Corp, are skeptical about Java Studio Creator’s ability to play as a development environment for enterprise-class applications.
Speaking during a JavaOne keynote, after Sun launched Java Studio Creator, Borland’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Pat Kerpan voiced skepticism that programming with drag-and-drop techniques would lead to the developer-less office
You need developer skills to take care of the portfolio of capabilities rather than think you can drag and drop you way to enterprise development… when building enterprise systems sometimes you are going to get dirty, Kerpan said.
The problem is, Java Studio Creator is for relatively simple construction with Java Server Pages (JSP) to build web-based applications and interfaces with automated JDBC binding of data to a page, so developers can avoid delving into programming at an API level.
BEA, which pioneered drag-and-drop J2EE development with WebLogic Workshop, believes Java Studio Creator is helpful in building web-based interfaces and applications for deployment on PCs, cell phones and automotive clients. The client was, after all, the focus for Microsoft Corp’s Visual Basic, which Sun is emulating.
However, large, complex enterprise class applications need a complex deployment framework, like STRUTS.
Sun’s strategy is to turn Java Studio Creator into an environment to create client applications. BEA, though, believes Sun has chosen the wrong framework. BEA senior director of product marketing for WebLogic Server, Workshop and Tuxedo Erick Freiberg, contrasted Java Studio Creator to Workshop, which he said nailed ease of use in the framework with Controls, to deploy enterprise class applications.
It’s impossible to start with ease of use and add complexity over time, Freiberg told ComputerWire.
Borland’s Kerpan said organizations must pick the right tools to build their enterprise Java applications, based on the degree of functional and architectural complexity involved. He dismissed the concept that of a new mythological business programmer, who would keep pushing a red button to produce enterprise code.
Java presents a portfolio of capabilities…. you must take decision on the tools to use. Think of the balance between art and orchestration, between creativity and control, Kerpan said.
