Re: [OFF TOPIC] Re: Apache browser, anyone? :)

[Brian Behlendorf <br...@organic.com>]

On Thu, 30 May 1996, Robert S. Thau wrote:
>   any project *not* based on Java will be obsolete in a matter of a 
>   year, if not at launch.
> 
> Ummm... what does that mean for us?  There are a bunch of options,
> ranging from "do nothing", to integrating with something like Tim
> Wilkinson's Kaffe JavaVM, to a radical shift onto a Java code base
> (something like Anselm Baird-Smith's Jigsaw server, perhaps, once
> it's publically available and a bit more mature).

I should have qualified that with "any NEW project", particularly a 
browser project.  

After having attended the Java 3-day infomercial, I can say that while 
there was an unhealthy lack of skepticism at the conference, it was clear 
that JavaSoft was taking the "we're building the next platform" concept 
very seriously, seriously enough that my concerns about whether they'd be 
able to get that to market and in the mindshare fast enough to compete 
against microsoft and ActiveX have been largely assuaged.  That's a 
gut-feeling report, the specifics can be obtained from 
http://java.sun.com/javaone/ (still running Apache! woohoo!)  They said 
they'd put the transcripts from all the sessions up so others can hear 
about what was discussed and presented, beyond the PDF slide shows they 
have there now.

As for our future - I think C code, with portability enhanced by 
autoconf, will carry us for a few more years at least, if not longer, but 
that we should stay very aware of the Java HTTP server projects going on, 
testing them out, etc., and at some point make a decision to either join 
with an existing project or write our own.  If anyone's motivated to 
start sooner I won't object, though at least until JIT compilers are 
out there for a large number of UNIX platforms it won't make sense from a 
portability of speed perspective.  In fact, it might not be hard to do 
parallel C and Java development, keeping two projects feature-for-feature 
compatible...anyways that's my strategic perspective.  

	Brian

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