 |
 |
||
![[section buttons]](../images/top_nav.gif){kind=small} |
|||
 |
 |
||
 |
![[page buttons]](../images/page_nav.gif){kind=small} |
||
 |
|||
The networked world imagined by
Bush,
Licklider,
Nelson,
and others is finally becoming a reality after three decades and countless
hours of late-night hacking and field testing. Many of the predicted
benefits of the "Intergalactic Network" are being realized, but new
paradigms are constantly created and either thrive or disappear. The
"fast as light" pace of the Internet can kill or establish
an idea quicker than a marketing department can come up with an ad
campaign. One of the products that has thrived is the cross-platform
language called Java.
After three years of hard work by Gosling and a handpicked
team of programmers and hardware specialists, the result was Java.
Its original intent was to embed a common operating system in household
and office appliances, and network them together. A revolutionary idea,
but the $20,000 price-tag for a "super" remote made it impractical.
However, the cross-platform Java language was quickly accepted around
the world for its other properties: cross-platform, object-oriented,
network-secure, and easy to program.
A Bigger Pipe
The Future
of the Internet
James Gosling, a senior programmer at
Sun Microsystems, was working on the forefront of new ideas. He had already
established himself as one of the world's best programmers, and his job at Sun
was to push the limits of computers. However, in 1991 he felt like
he was in a rut.
Scott McNealy sensed something
wrong and asked Gosling if there was a problem. Gosling told him the current
operating systems were too restrictive and he wanted to create his own. McNealy
told him to do it - no matter what the cost or amount of time.
Traffic on the Internet today includes Java applets, streaming video
and audio, subscription channels, as well as HTML and email. The government
has handed over several sections of the Interne