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SAN FRANCISCO -- Big tech conferences are commonplace in this city, and it isn't unusual these days to see folks lining up outside the Moscone Convention Center for a chance to listen to some tech bigwig hold forth on an amazing new technology destined, he says, to change our world.
But Monday morning's crowds outside JavaOne, the Sun-sponsored conference for people who code in the cross-platform Java programming language, was probably one for the record books, even by San Francisco standards. The line stretched around the block, more than 20,000 people thick -- bigger than the crowds at the Macworld shows, where Steve Jobs makes his famously flashy Apple announcements.
Java is huge, apparently. Who knew? Here we thought it was just a tool for creating smart Web apps, like a cute little program to make Jesus hop on a pogo stick.
Of course, Java can do a lot more than that, but Ed Zander, Sun's chief operating officer, said that the media isn't really telling that story.
"I'm a little disappointed with the press," he said at a speech kicking off the conference, suggesting that nobody is saying how ubiquitous Java is these days. As Java continues to quietly gain devotees, the media have instead focused on still-in-development projects -- like Microsoft's "Dot-Net" strategy, he said.
So Zander and other Sun execs pointed to the crowds as proof that Java has a sizable Web presence. There are more than two and a half million Java developers working in the world today, Zander said, and he predicted that the number would rise to four million by 2003. And these people are writing thousands of Java applications, he said -- all under the radar.
"I hope the press and analysts really understand what's going on here," he said. "(The turnout) is extraordinary when you consider these economic times." He added: "This is the story that you ought to be writing ... not what might happen with Dot-Net."
Much of the rest of Zander's speech followed this rah-rah vein, and were it not for the fact that 20,000 people had each paid $1,700 to attend this conference devoted to a programming language, much of what he said might have sounded like careless puffery: "I don't think we'll ever see something as pervasive as we've seen with Java," for instance; or "(The invention of) Java will rank right up there with the microprocessor and Ethernet.... It will go down in history."
Oddly, though, some of Zander's boasting sounded earnest, because it really looks like the promise of Java -- its ability to easily go into all kinds of devices -- is finally coming true.
When John Gage, Sun's chief researcher, came onto the stage to open the conference, he said, "You're applauding because we're finally beginning." He was referring to the time -- the speech started about 30 minutes late -- but his comment was a fitting metaphor for the Java language, which is now becoming one of the dominant languages in the wireless world.
With wireless devices slated to be at the heart of the next tech "revolution," and with Java getting support from such wireless heavies as Nokia and NTT DoCoMo, Sun's faith in cross-platform programming may finally pay off for consumers. Java will even be coming to Sony's Playstation 2, the company said on Monday.
And the execs on stage showed why all this Java would make the world a cooler place. Your phone could chat with your PS2, which could take your picture and send it to your computer, and all of your info could be stored on a Java smart card.
It sounds interesting, but there's an obstacle standing in the way of Sun's Java dreams: You guessed it, it's Microsoft, the same obstacle as ever.
Zander took repeated shots at the company, saying that Java's "open," available-to-all services will spur more innovation than Microsoft's proprietary efforts. "Look at the innovation you got between 1983 and 1995," he said. "We only got minor improvements (to existing software) -- and did the word processor get that much better? Then look at the innovation you had between 1995 and today."
He suggested, of course, that Java was a key factor in that innovation, and that -- if its millions of developers stick with it -- the language will continue to play a big part in future tech innovations.
"It's not just about making something look good on the Web," Zander said.
