>>Java is sun's amazing new virtual operating system
>
>This statement isn't exactly correct: Java is an object-oriented
>programming language designed with distributed/networked applications
>in mind.
I'm afraid you need to take a closer look. Java is not just a language - it's
a class library and a virtual machine as well. What's the difference between
Java and an operating system? An operating system provides an
abstract layer between executables and hardware; so does Java.
Now I say Java is a *virtual* operating system because it runs over a
virtual machine; however there has already been talk, from Bill Joy
amongst others, of turning out both a standalone Java box (ie. no OS
beneath JVM) and a JVM chip. Perhaps your dictionary is different to
mine, but that sounds like an OS to me.
And there is another, better, reason to regard Java as an OS. It's a platform
which application developers can target, just the same as they would any OS.
The great advantage of Java for application developers is that it is a
virtual platform - so it is already possible to run the *exact* same Java
byte-code over Windows 95, Windows NT, Solaris and Linux. Very soon (within
a month or two) there'll be JVMs for Macintosh, HP, and OS/2. IBM has announced
that it will do a JVM implementation for Windows 3.1 as well. Borland are
writing a JVM. Even Microsoft have just announced that they're going to
support Java, which pretty much scotches their unholy MSN/Blackbird/VBA
plans (Hooray!).
Java developers can therefore do things that others can only dream about
- they can both target the *entire* PC user-base, and they can ignore
the often unsightly peculiarities of the more primitive OS's (ie.
windoze & Macs). Java is the OS to end all OS's!
As to Java's focus, I'm sure you're aware of the history of the product
- it was originally intended (and to some extent is still intended) as
an appliance oriented language suitable for both PDA's (the unreleased
"star seven"), set-top boxes and so forth. In this, its original target
was remarkably similar to that presently targeted by GW. This suggests
that a JVM implemented over GEOS would be a really good bet - it would
mean that people could run Java applets both on the existing PDA's, and
on the GEOS phones/datapads that Nokia and GW are purported to be
building. How cool would that be? And the new GEOS is supposed to
support TCP/IP as well, so network-oriented applets could *still* run
over Geos/Java on the digital cellular network!
>>(no, I won't explain what that is - go look at http://java.sun.com/).
>
>I agree that this is a good place to start your investigation of the
>Java language.
If you've got a java-enabled copy of Netscape 2.0 (except for macs) you
can find a lot of spanking new freeware applets and development tools at
http://www.gamelan.com/ as well.
>>re-implement it over GEOS
>
>I'm not aware of any efforts to port Java or the HotJava browser to
>GEOS.
Neither am I, though I've just had someone mail to ask if I'm interested
in participating in one. Maybe one of the GeoWorks reps could comment as
to whether they have any intentions in this area, or whether they're
content for 3rd parties to have at it?
Pete.