By most people's estimate, it's the fifth anniversary of Java. Five years
ago, with Netscape in tow, Sun unveiled Java, declaring that the Java
programming language would be the next Web revolution. At the time HotJava
was the "killer app" for Java; more a proof of concept than a competitive
browser platform, it demonstrated that there could be more to the Web than
plain old HTML.
Within a year all the major browser platforms included a 1.0 version of the
Java Runtime and applets were considered the next big thing after plug-ins.
Both, it turned out, were pretty much useless for e-commerce and interactive
Web sites: all the action was on the server. Java was declared dead by many
industry pundits and its role on the client side of the Internet equation
diminished massively.
Sun and other vendors began accordingly to shift their attention server-side,
since computi... (more)
Sometimes simple technologies combine in ways that create massive innovation
and opportunity. The Web itself is a modern example. Formed as a simple
request/response document delivery mechanism, the core technologies of the
Web -- HTML and HTTP -- central to a broad computing platform shift. It's
because these technologies were so simple and accessible that the Web
exploded the way it did.
In 1994 we saw that this simple technology could be extended with two other
well known, simple technologies -- scripting and databases. With CFML and a
basic database engine, the Web could be ... (more)
ON THE PAST...
"Back in 1997 I created a simple application in CF that presented a UI via
the very first Web phone (the AT&T PocketNet Phone), and allowed me to turn
on and off the lights and coffee maker in my house"
ON THE PRESENT...
"For the past few years I've spent a great deal of timing working on and
thinking about the application of rich media, video, and media distribution
technologies"
"It's hard to think of a kind of Internet or Web application that ColdFusion
couldn't be used for building"
"most...institutions - learning institutions, government institutions,
religio... (more)
Over the past couple of years, an idea has emerged (some might argue it's an
old idea) that software will be transformed into being used as services,
rather than as monolithic applications tied to a specific machine or
platform. Rather than install software onto computers every time we need some
functionality, an end user or corporation can reuse other application assets
over the network. The idea expands into the notion of just-in-time delivery
of applications. "Software as services" is a big idea. It holds the promise
of introducing radical new economies of scale into the manuf... (more)
On June 15 Allaire announced that it intended to acquire Live Software,
makers of JRun, the leading server-side Java development and deployment
server. With this acquisition Allaire also announced a broader strategy for
embracing Java on the server, extending its leading Web application platform
with a huge customer base and technology platform, and setting the stage for
an integrated application server platform that combines the dominant
tag-based rapid development model (CFML) with the dominant server-side
object-oriented system programming language, Java. These perfect cousins... (more)
Jeremy Allaire is one of the key people behind ColdFusion. He was one of the co-founders of Allaire Corp, which was later sold to Macromedia, where he joined as the CTO and turned his attention to helping evolve Macromedia Flash into a next-generation rich client platform. He is a regular author and analyst of Internet technologies.
Scott Sellers
Anthony Franco
Daniel Morris
Wayne Walls
Niki Acosta
Jereme Hancock
Oren Michels
Marvin Wheeler
Douglas Kim
Ken Guiberson
