[Am-info] Next Version Of J2EE Is Delayed

[Fred A. Miller]

NOT good!!

Fred
_______________________

  Next Version Of J2EE Is Delayed

Sun Microsystems and its partners in building the next version of
the Java enterprise platform have moved back the release date for
J2EE 1.4 from the fourth quarter until the first quarter of next
year. The delay risks putting the platform for building Web
applications further behind competitor Microsoft Windows in
delivering native support for emerging Web-services standards,
which proponents say will eventually redefine application
development for the Internet.

J2EE 1.4 is expected to include native support for the Simple
Object Access Protocol, the Web-services protocol for
communications between applications. Ralph Galantine, J2EE
product line manager for Sun, says the release date has been
revised because the Java Community Process, the
industry-standards body established by Java creator Sun to build
the platform, needed more time. While Soap support is still
planned, other proposed specifications need review before the JCP
can work on reference implementations and develop a test suite
for compliance. The original date for release was never set in
stone, Galantine says, and even the new date could change.
Meanwhile, Microsoft supports Soap in its development tool suite,
Visual Studio.Net, and will include its .Net Framework runtime
environment for Web-services apps within Windows.Net Server, an
upgrade to its server operating system line, due by year's end.

Native support for Web services within the Java platform is
crucial for Sun and its partners to deliver on a standards-based
platform that does not tie an enterprise to any one vendor--a key
advantage over Microsoft's .Net Web-services framework on
Windows. Time, of course, is also crucial. Microsoft can deliver
technology for its platform faster than Java vendors, which have
to submit all requests for platform changes or enhancements for
approval by the JCP. "The Java community is moving at a
reasonable speed, but Microsoft has moved faster," Forrester
Research analyst Frank Gillett says.

In the meantime, Microsoft developers are building Web services
with Visual Studio.Net. Once J2EE 1.4 is released, it will take
months for Java vendors to gain certification for their products,
further delaying industrywide, standards-based Java Web services.
- Antone Gonsalves

For full story, see
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eGTU0Bce7K0V20BaGb0Ap

And for more on Web services, read
Decoding Web Services
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eGTU0Bce7K0V20SpQ0At

-- 
Fred A. Miller
Systems Administrator
Cornell Univ. Press Services
fm@cupserv.org, www.cupserv.org
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