Josh Bloch, author of Effective Java and current Google employee, was interviewed by InfoQ last week for his opinions on Java’s future. All of his responses are interesting, particularly his lament on the lack of progress towards Java 7, but given his employer it’s interesting to read into his firm comments on the Sun-Apache dispute over TCK licensing, along with the bastard child of that dispute, Android. Perhaps most provocative statement is that the stalemate has “all but eliminated progress via the JCP.” Is this really true for all JSRs? Or does he believe that real heavy-duty Java enhancements aren’t even being considered because of the dispute? His proposed solution, not surprisingly, is that Oracle should do what Oracle asked Sun to do two years ago — namely, come to terms with Apache in the dispute. Oracle’s continuing refusal to do this since the merger is beginning to seem less like “Hmm, here is something that we will need to get around to once we get all our ducks in order” and more like “Now that we own the Java trademark, we have a different perspective on this issue.”Another intriguing statement: when asked whether, in a post-Harmony-dispute utopia, Sun might bless Android or something like it as a replacement for Java ME, or a sort of Java ME 2.0. His reply was pretty circumspect:I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to speculate on this one, though it is worth pointing out that there’s certainly a place for “feature phones” (as opposed to “smart phones”) in the developing world, and Java ME was designed with feature phones in mind. A nice While Google obviously is keen on seeing Harmony approved and the TCK dispute resolved, it seems that they are not so interested in Google becoming some sort of official Java standard — perhaps because doing so gives up some of Google’s control over it? Also of note is this comment on Dalvik: In the brave new world of open source, multiple related platforms are a given. There are many Unix-like operating systems and many Linux variants, optimized for many uses. I see Dalvik as a VM designed with a very different set of design goals and constraints from HotSpot or JRockit.In other words, building a Dalvik VM that is compatible enough with the Java standard enough to earn the Java seal of approval might not be in Google’s — or Android’s — interests, even if all the licensing issues are resolved. The whole interview is really interesting, and definitely deserves your attention. Technology Industry