James Gosling VP & CTO of Sun Microsystems' Developer Products Group

Java Stands Out in Interoperability, Security & Stability

To mark "Sun Tech Day" in Seoul on October 7, James Gosling, VP(Vice President), senior researcher and group CTO of Sun-Microsystems' Developer Products group, visited Korea. His visit to Korea was the first in five years and welcomed by a great number of domestic developers of Java and other programs. He later held meetings with domestic Java developer community members and program developers. Overall, his visit to Seoul contributed much to promoting the advantages of Java.

Q: What is the purpose of your visit

A: October 7 is "Developers' Day" worldwide, and in particular, it is "Sun Tech Day" in Korea. In line with this event, I wanted to boost the moral of Java developers and inform more people of the superiority of Java here in Korea.

Q: For what reasons is Java superior

A: Java can be applied to anywhere where digital intention exists such as in main frames, PCs and Web sites. Java also is "open source" and thus can be easily accessed. When it comes to security, Java is outstanding. Any system using Java programs has so far been immune to virus intrusion.

Q: Java is still unfamiliar to non-developers. What kind of advantages does Java offer Can you give our readers some concrete examples

A: People just don't know about how widely Java is used. Java programs are used in many aspects of daily life such as in the Web sites of major banks and in on-line stock trading. Examples of usage of Java are everywhere. Let me take Brazil's health and medical services as just one example. The country's health authorities manage data on all patients using Java and the program is designed so that only their individual doctors can gain access to the data. Through the data base, the records of patients are managed efficiently regardless where the patient lives.

Q: Microsoft and Sun have settled their legal action against each other. How will this settlement affect Java development

A: Microsoft has had to pay enormous damages as its suit failed. There are a lot of unnecessary legal disputes and it is real waste of time and money. Sun tries not to pour money into efforts of this sort. We have always endeavored to provide inter-changeability in the use of Java from the beginning, in contrast with Microsoft's independent approach. On the positive side, as a result of the suit, access to Microsoft's interface is now possible.

Q: What is the direction of the development of Java and how has this changed from the past

A: The starting point for the development of Java was what would help Sun's business. We considered consumer goods applications at that time. All consumer goods were becoming digitalized while computerization of automobiles and telephones was beginning. Enthusiasm for networking for all these goods has been growing. Some kind of integration was needed to forge communication between different devices and at the same time security and stability figured largely in our considerations. It was from these deliberations that work on Java began.

Q: What is difference between an "open source" community and the Java community

A: Sun has worked very closely with open source communities. Much of Sun's business is related to open sources. The Java execution method has been promoted in a similar manner to that of open sources. However, the open source community maintains that Java is not open source. This is because there is one big difference, though, between Java and open source. Java carries out strict inter-operability and inter-changeability tests and emphasizes quality standards. Inter-operability and inter-changeability through strict standards is necessary in today's enterprise environment. Despite the differences, Sun is still a member of the open source community and shares important information and cooperates with it.

Q: What should be done for Java's further development

A: Sun is continuing discussions on this very subject with 130,000 Java developers in 55 countries around the world through promotional events like Sun Tech Day. Any problem regarding stability has not reported so far. The keenest issue at present is education. That is, there is a desperate need for education to continuously learn about Java's evolving technology and utilize it, and Sun is making efforts to expand such opportunities. Korea has the fourth-largest Java community; what's more it continues to grow by 10 percent annually. In cooperation with Java community, we will further expand the opportunity for education here in Korea.

Q: Would you tell us about Java royalty related issues

A: To start off, a license fee attaches to the use of Java, not a royalty. In any case, the fee is very low and thus we feel no customer can legitimately complain about this. For example, desk-top computer applications are free from royalty charges. Our mobile license fee is extremely low compared to other technologies.

Q: How is Java applied in the Web service sector

A: It is generally recognized that the Web service market is led by IBM and Microsoft. According to a recent poll, basic protocols for Java Web services were established a long time ago.

Brazilian health and medical systems were set up as Java-based end-to-end, and Web-site protocols were realized using Java programs. Sun has also launched a Java-based Web service initiative for the Singaporean government.

Q: What is your opinion about the future of the Korean software industry and its development prospect

A: I first became aware of the high interest in Java here in Korea when I met university students at a Sun Tech Day event four years ago. Korea is a leader in the global mobile market, and boasts the highest subscription rate of high-speed Internet telecommunications services. I discovered many interesting and unique technologies here such as virtual communication through a mobile phone.

Korea also has fastest growing IT industry in the world. The future challenge of Korea is to develop capable human resources in sufficient quantity. Creating more opportunities for education will lead to further development and innovation. Most important is how university students will be given this kind of opportunity.

Korea has enough software development capability to elbow out the competitors that have been eager to catch up it.

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