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Oct. 6, 1997

"Open", but I retain the trademark

The story

WebWeek, September 29, describes some of the recent developments in the Java wars.

The most striking news is an article entitled Sun Holds Grip on Java Trademark, Renews Push for Standards Approval which describes Sun's attitude to openness:

Sun "cannot and will not surrender its trademark" for Java, said Alan Baratz, president of Sun's JavaSoft Division [...]
Sun's application [to have Java standardized by the International Standards Organization, ISO, while retaining the trademark] has already been rejected once, largely because ISO committees from 30 nations worried that Sun was trying to retain too much control. [...] Microsoft, Intel, Compaq and Digital Equipment argued in an open letter released earlier this month that Sun would have to give the ISO ownership of the Java technology and trademark in order to make it a legitimate standard.

A companion article (Sun's Threatening To Yank Microsoft's Java License) reports that:

Microsoft said it will support [neither] the Java Native Interface and Remote Method Invocation interface [nor] the Java Foundation Classes that will be released with JDK 1.2.
Microsoft argued that these parts of the specification attempt to burden Java with all the plumbing of an operating system, whereas it sees Java as just another programming language.

This is not to Sun's liking:

Sun would start by pulling Microsoft's right to use the Java trademark. Ultimately, Sun would try to prevent Microsoft from continuing to deploy the technology, said Jim Mitchell, vice president of technology and architecture in Sun's JavaSoft division.

Our comment

Sun cannot have it both ways. Either Java is an international standard, and Sun must relinquish the trademark to the ISO or a similar organization; or it is a Sun property, and the claim of openness and interoperability reveal themselves for what they are: vacuous.

It is interesting to compare the situation with that of Eiffel, where ISE, inventor of the technology, released it officially to an external organization, NICE (the Nonprofit International Consortium for Eiffel), which is in control of the language and the kernel library, and which any interested party can join.

More generally, the hype surrounding Java should not obscure that the language, regardless of its merits, is basically a political tool: a weapon in Sun's attempted battle against Microsoft. Software developers should question whether they are willing to serve as cannon fodder in that war.

Microsoft is correct in stating that Java is "just another programming language". Sun's attempt to make it the language to end all languages is wishful thinking, as were similar attempts in the past with PL/I and Ada. When the hype has subsided, Java will emerge as a subset of C++, useful to write client-side applications, in particular for the Web. Neither the language nor the tools are appropriate for mission-critical systems, especially on the server side.

Eiffel has proven its reliability in such settings, with some of the largest successful ambitious projects completed in banking, finance, embedded systems and telecommunications. Eiffel is positioned to be complementary with Java, with Java interfaces included in ISE Eiffel 4.2 and Java bytecode generation on its way.

As always, software developers should resist the power of marketing and choose the right tool for each job.

Of related interest

See earlier news stories on related topics:

6 August: Microsoft declares war on Java portability

29 July: Java portability in question

Reference

Sun Holds Grip on Java Trademark, Renews Push for Standards Approval by David F. Carr, WebErrk, vol. 3, issue 31, 29 September 1997, page 7. Same page, same author: Sun's Threatening To Yank Microsoft's Java License. The magazine's Web page is at http://www.webweek.com.

To other "news stories of the week".