Bill Dunlap

The introduction of Java brought several advances to the discipline of software development. Based on lessons learned from years of building software in C++, the Java language was designed to simplify the development of object-oriented, network-aware applications. It brimmed with potential and was accompanied by a wide variety of promises, including enhanced programmer productivity, seamless cross-platform deployment and an architecture for building large-scale applications. Over the past three years, the promise of Java has been put to the test repeatedly. What has emerged is a better picture of what customers want from their software as well as what Java can and cannot do. To its credit, the design of the Java language has demonstrated tremendous programmer productivity benefits over C++. Language features such as automatic garbage collection, exception handling ... (more)