Year in Review: Java in 2008 - What just happened?

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Java developers wake up to REST

REST is another enterprise technology that made significant gains in 2008. REST represents a move toward simplicity in enterprise integration, as compared to SOAP, for example. The Restlet framework, which arguably put REST on the map for Java developers a few short years ago, saw its v1.1 release in 2008. JSR 311, which served as a REST specification for Java, also reached v1.0 in 2008.

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RIA in the limelight

Within a span of a few years, the Web has transformed tremendously in favor of richly interactive applications that look and feel completely unlike the earlier generation of browser-based pageflows. Ajax, as in recent years, remains a hot topic. But 2008 also witnessed a lot of buzz around RIA frameworks such as Adobe's Flex, Microsoft's Silverlight, and toward year end, Sun's JavaFX 1.0.

Name-brand recognition for RIA

RIA frameworks aren't new, but they're gaining recognition as more consumer applications leverage them. For instance, Silverlight became a household name during the Olympics via a high-profile Web site. Adobe's marketing engine also went into overdrive in 2008, touting the flexibility and applicability of Flex and its host of enterprise development tools, including a free Eclipse plug-in. Interesting, given Adobe's past was largely defined by Flash introductions to Web sites.

Many Java developers (and some notable engineers) migrated to Flex in 2008, some finding ways to integrate slick Flex front-ends with Java EE, others abandoning the Java platform altogether. It remains to be seen, given this trend, whether JavaFX can capture the legions of Java developers who might find JavaFX Script (while declarative in nature) much closer to home than Flex's XML.

Of course, RIA as a technology also requires platforms -- one being a browser -- and in 2008, Sun pushed hard to rewrite the Java plug-in, which is the interface point whereby browsers can run Java. While some believe the applet could re-emerge as a RIA platform, clearly Sun is pushing on multiple fronts to have a RIA framework (JavaFX) and still remain a force to be reckoned with on the browser. In essence, Sun appears to be targeting both ends: if the RIA framework isn't Java related, at least the browser will be Java enabled.

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Sun swings away from Swing

In late October, a shot rang out across the blogosphere regarding Sun's apparent announcement that it was pulling its support from Swing. In truth, Sun's declaration doesn't mean Swing is dead. Swing, just like all other core Java technologies, will survive for the long haul. (People still create EJBs, don't they? Applets too!). It's just that Sun is pulling back on active new features (and therefore costs) and re-prioritizing people and resources to focus on JavaFX.

In fact, Sun is showing its proverbial hand: that the future of UI development, as far as Sun sees it, is with rich Internet applications à la JavaFX. As previously noted here and elsewhere, it remains to be seen whether Sun can effectively compete in a market containing two 500-pound gorillas that have had an impressive head-start.

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Past as prologue: The future of Java

The Java language seems inexorably headed toward an inflection point: it will either continue evolving on its own (as it has largely done until now) or it will begin to adopt certain features that have made functional and dynamic languages increasingly popular among Java-based developers. For the moment, the Java language appears to be on hold -- it was not updated in 2008, and some have speculated that JavaFX Script may in fact be Sun's long-term answer to the stale conundrums of the Java language syntax.

Meanwhile, Java as a platform remains strong, if not especially exciting to a community that appears hungry for new approaches. While developers continue to migrate to newer platforms -- Ruby on Rails being the most obvious example -- many more are using dynamic and functional languages on the JVM. Sun has taken steps to embrace this trend by hiring developers from the Jython and JRuby camps; SpringSource and G2One have begun the process of integrating Spring and Groovy; and the JVM Language Summit, 2008, showcased what may be the enduring legacy of the Java platform: the JVM.
Acknowledgments

I'd like to thank the following individuals whose valuable insights regarding the past year in Java helped shape this article: Ted Tanka, David Bock, Jared Richardson, John Brothers, Guillaume Laforge, Patrick Lightbody, Andres Almiray, David Hodge, Jason Huggins, Athen O'Shea, and Eric Lefevre. Thank you all for your time!
About the author

Andrew Glover is a developer, author, speaker, and entrepreneur with a passion for behavior-driven development, Continuous Integration, and Agile software development. You can keep up with him by reading The Disco Blog.

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