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IBM, Novell Back Start-Up's Java Spec

JANUARY 1999

Tensions are surfacing within the Java alliance.

A small application server start-up, WebLogic Inc., is attempting to become the standard bearer for a new list of Java application server requirements. The company posted a white paper by its vice president, Scott Dietzen, outlining its proposed standard at www.weblogic.com.

The move could be laughed off by established competitors except for the fact that two members of the Java alliance, IBM Corp. and Novell Inc., are backing the standard. And many application server competitors, including Sun Microsystems Inc., which developed the programming language, don't yet meet it.

Another sore point with IBM and other Java vendors is the delays in Sun's Hot Spot optimizing compiler, which is designed to improve the speed of cross-platform Java code. The compiler is expected early in 1999 and will be about a year behind schedule. IBM officials acknowledged they are working on their own optimizing compilers for potential use on its System/390 and AS/400 computing platforms.

Discussions with Sun on Hot Spot "are still under way," said Jason Woodard, program manager for Java technology marketing at IBM.

Meanwhile, Fujitsu Ltd. said that it, like Hewlett-Packard Co. earlier this year, produced a clean-room, or unlicensed, version of Java for use in embedded systems and network appliances. Embedded Java is different from server side Java since it concentrates on a small footprint and limited functionality, depending on the target device.

But it's on the server side that Sun faces its most immediate problem. Sun officials were not available for comment on the proposed WebLogic server standard at posting time.

IBM and Novell recently licensed the WebLogic's Tengah application server. IBM offers it, as well as its own WebSphere, with its AS/400 line.

"I'm in agreement with Scott [Dietzen] on the need for consistency of implementation of Java on the server," said IBM's Woodard. IBM offers three versions of its own Java application server, WebSphere, and is working to bring them up to the level of the white paper's standard.

WebLogic's call for a server standard and its quick backing by Novell and IBM point up a developing problem for server side Java.

"The way NetDynamics [Inc., recently purchased by Sun] and the way Netscape [Communications Corp.] have implemented Java on the application server are different," said David Linthicum, chief technology officer of Software AG Americas Inc., citing two examples.

Consequently, Java applications can't be written for one and then used on the other because of the different compilers - software that converts the programmer's source code into ones and zeros - needed with each server. When that happens, "portability becomes a fallacy, diluting the Java value proposition. The problem is getting worse," Linthicum said.

Novell is lobbying for agreement on how to develop Java apps for application servers, because it sees that as vital to resurrecting third-party development efforts for its NetWare product.

Novell's commitment to Java extends to its developing its own Java Virtual Machine and included it in its recent release of the NetWare 5 operating system. The virtual machine is built to the Java specification set by Sun but optimized for quick Java application performance under NetWare.

Dietzen's white paper outlines 12 Application Programming Interfaces and Java Network Directory Interfaces that a server must supply to qualify as a Java application server. He said Sun is 12 months away from having a product that can meet the proposed standard.

WebLogic can be reached at www.weblogic.com

Sun Microsystems can be reached at www.sun.com

IBM can be reached at www.ibm.com

Software AG Americas can be reached at www.sagafyi.com