The Future of Java?

Todd AvErth writes "Judge Motz recently ordered Microsoft to distribute Sun's JVM with every Windows product. Salon decided to pipe up about it with an editorial musing about whether or not it's too late. Most of it isn't all that interesting, but some of the comments from Ximian developer, Miguel de Icaza point to the advantage of being able to compile from multiple languages. Anyone know of any projects to compile JVM bytecode from other languages?" Update: 01/23 16:00 GMT by M : Comments were disallowed when this story was originally posted; fixed now. My mistake (although KDE3's stupid mouseover-activates-form-elements user interface, now finally fixed in the latest versions, has to take some blame too).

Comments

Languages for the Java VM...

[The Wookie]

can be found here.

It doesn't mention SmartEiffel, though, which does generate byte codes. There are probably many others as well.

Re:Languages for the Java VM...

[lgraba]

Here are a few of the more notable Java Processors ones:

www.ajile.com (and www.systronix.com has a few boards built witht the processors).

www.ptsc.com

Also, the Jazelle technology from ARM embeds a java processor section into an ARM chip:

http://www.arm.com/armtech/jazelle?OpenDocument

Jython

[dbarry]

Anyone know of any projects to compile JVM bytecode from other languages?

Jython
# Dynamic compilation to Java bytecodes - leads to highest possible performance without sacrificing interactivity.
# Ability to extend existing Java classes in Jython - allows effective use of abstract classes.
# Optional static compilation - allows creation of applets, servlets, beans, ...
# Bean Properties - make use of Java packages much easier.
# Python Language - combines remarkable power with very clear syntax. It also supports a full object-oriented programming model which makes it a natural fit for Java's OO design.

Re:The Future of Java? Even Brighter!!

[mooZENDog]

I agree completely with your comments on the future of Java as a server side solution. JSP, servlets, and J2EE are all fantastic.

Sure Swing is a little sluggish, but when everyone is running a p4 2GHz, it really doesn't matter....

But it does matter, if other programming languages still run relatively faster than Java. I agree that it's not as clunky as it was a few years ago though... *shudder*

Two things I feel you've left out are:
1 - The embedded systems market. When I was at Uni this was being touted as the next best thing. I don't have any real statistics for you, but I'm sure Java is doing well in this field.
2 - The mobile phone market. Pretty similar to my first point, the KVM (Kilobyte VM - a cut-down version of JVM) and related APIs in J2ME are a big player in the mobile phone business. The company I work for is developing mobile phone games, and Java has got the support of the handset manufacturers, which will give it superiority over other technologies that havn't had as good an uptake.