Summary
At this year's JavaOne, you can notice the buzz around "cloud computing." Vendors seem to have different takes on just what this term means. Then there are fun new languages for the VM, such as Scala, JavaFX, and Clojure. And old languages seem to be moving to the VM, too: There are JavaOne sessions on running PHP on the JVM, for example.
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At JavaOne 2009, "cloud" is in. The word "cloud" as in Cloud Computing, is noticeable everywhere. There is Sun's Cloud Computing, Google's App Engine Cloud Computing, Cloud messaging, and more. And it seems like everyone is using the cloud a little differently from others.
I find the meaning of the word "cloud" a bit cloudy, to say the least. The concept of cloud computing basically revolves around providing the user (the application developer in this case) the host/server as well as all the necessary software (appserver, database, J2EE SDK…) that he/she needs to build, deploy and execute his web application. The user just builds and deploys and the cloud will do the rest. I think a better term would be "Ready-To-Go" Computing. That is really what Cloud computing is, at least how the vendors present it. You can even shorten it to "R2G Computing".
I talked to a couple of people from Sun and found out there is website with JavaFX
examples and sample code, http://www.javaFX.COM. I actually like the website itself. It is colorful and easy to use. Have to check out the sample apps a bit more.
As for new stuff at JavaOne 2009, there is a new JVM language, Scala, that I like to chat about with my peers and friends at JavaOne. I'm also looking forward to learning more about what is new with the Spring framework.
I attended a session titled: "How to Run PHP Faster Using Java Technology" and it turns
out there is at least one Java-based version of PHP, Quercus, that allows one to run PHP in a Java environment. Why implement PHP in Java? Well it turns out it is fast, and also this way you can take advantage of all sorts of Java services and utilities that may not be readily available in a PHP environment.
By the way, if you feel "Cloud Computing" is, or somewhat not, a clear term and you have a better one, please feel free to mention it in your comment.
I attended CommunityOne and I was surprised how excited people were about Scala. I went to a presentation on Lift - a framework that sits on top of Scala - and was quite impressed and will be looking for opportunities to use the language in place of Java.
I like the name "Cloud" computing - I think it originates from a drawing where a "cloud" is placed around computing services. But "Sun Cloud" is an interesting juxtaposition of words!
SUN has missed an important opportunity from Quercus. SUN should have developped itself within open source a Quercus-like software to spread Java under PHP, and then, to spread Java hosting instead of PHP.
IMHO, SUN has missed different opportunities with PHP. I wrote a post about PHP/Java relationships here: "" PHP 5 is close to Java 1.4 and maybe even more much closer to JavaScript! http://www.jroller.com/dmdevito/entry/php_5_is_close_to ""
Seems like Sun has been focusing on JavaFX for the past 2-3 years -- and it had more emphasis this year than last. I do have to give Sun/JavaOne credit since there has been a PHP track in JavaOne for the past few years. Sure, they could open up the stage for more discussion on PHP-Java interworking...
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