Applets, dev tools showcased at Object/Java Expo

The first Java Expo, held August 5-9 at the New York Hilton, was a show within a show. Wrapped within SIGS Conferences’ 8th Annual Object Expo, this latest Java event included vendor exhibits, conference sessions, and a contest honoring top applets.

More than 60 exhibitors displayed products on the show floor, with an ample section dedicated solely to Java vendors. Keynote speakers included Rich Green, director of SunSoft’s Solaris server products division, on “The Challenges to Java,” and Natasha Krol, vice president of the META Group, on “Objects on the Web.” The two-pronged show drew 5,000 attendees, according to SIGS.

Big Applet Awards

In a special conference event, SIGS teamed with the Java Developers Organization (www.jade.org) to present “The Big Applet Awards” — a contest clearly inspired by Sun’s recent Java Cup International competition. In this case, plaques (sorry, no snazzy workstations), were awarded to seven winners in five categories

Judging was conducted by jade.org personnel and volunteers from the group’s mail list. Nominees were rated according to “creativity and originality,” “interactivity,” “efficient operation,” and “general excellence.” They were also weighted to reflect user hits at each site.

Business Services

• Jun Wang’s www.iconcomp.com/shopper/index/.html, an online CyberStore shopping system;
• Jerry Ablan’s www.netgeeks.com/jif.html, a Java Intranet Framework (JIF).

Education

• Bogdan Butoi’s serendip.brynmawr.edu/~pgrobste/life.html, John Conway’s game of life development;
• David Benjamin’s www.telecom.auburn.edu/testing, an online interactive homework site.

Games and Entertainment

• Jason C. Plurad’s www.duke/~jcpdukeu/tune.html, a “Name That Tune” game (and .au player).

Global Community

• Manu Kumar’s sneaker.pc.cs.cmu.edu/java/alpha, which emphasizes worldwide cooperation.

Sound and Vision

• Visualize Technologies’ www.visualizetech.com/visualize/Visualize.html, for “Visualize!” a collection of interactive applets for creating 2D and 3D graphing functions.

Judging was conducted by jade.org personnel and volunteers from the group’s mail list. Nominees were rated according to “creativity and originality,” “interactivity,” “efficient operation,” and “general excellence.” They were also weighted to reflect user hits at each site.

C++ vendors adopting Java

Java seems to be commanding attention from a broad base of developers, including OO programmers steeped in C++.

“Java is definitely putting pressure on the C++ developers,” said Michael Spertus, president of Geodesic Systems. “It’s a kind of `in-your-face’ thing right now. And that’s great. It’s forcing us to rethink our assumptions, with things like garbage collection, for example. At the same time, the Java developers still have to go back to C and C++ to integrate some projects, and they’re interested in the Java-like features that products such as our Great Circle have to offer — which brings the two camps together.”

“It was interesting to see how the C++ vendors are migrating their software to Java,” said Graham Glass, chief of technology for ObjectSpace. “And we’re happy to be one of those vendors. There’s a great sense of optimism in the [object technology] community right now with the coming of Java. There are a lot of opportunities out there.”