Software PDP

As a Java software developer, I am excited about the recent press releases from Oracle, IBM, and Apple to partner on the future development of OpenJDK.

I developed Java software solely on a Mac for about five years, and while I love the Mac, didn’t really love Java on the Mac.  I ran into issues with the Java SE6 JVM that seemed to be more of a headache, than the Mac experience that you expect from their auto-update utility.  Hence, why I believe that this is a step in the right direction for Apple and Oracle.

IBM, on the other hand, has really caught my attention recently.  Their developerWorks articles and resources have been a huge help to me recently when checking out JNI best practices, and just an introduction to JNI.

What I would really like to see from an OpenJDK alliance is a free, open source, real-time JVM.

As I get into more embedded and real-time Java programming, I am finding that the real-time Java community is very a specialized subset of Java developers, with an interest in the academia of real-time computing and Java in general.  With that said, it appears that this group of developers using real-time Java have their expenses paid either by the companies contracting their work, or by association with an academic institution.  And by expenses, I mean the $7000-$14000 up-front development tools prices for Sun Java Real-Time System, IBM WebSphere Real-Time, Aonix PERC, and Aicas JamaicaVM.

Oracle, IBM, Apple, OpenJDK partners: make us a free, open source, real-time JVM and JDK that will inspire innovation.

Now that OpenJDK has two BIG players on their team, why not make something BIG happen, other than just the expected?  The truth is, Apple is an embedded device company, IBM works on all fronts of Java technology, and Oracle/Sun could stand to earn Java a more reputable name for embedded and real-time programming.  In spite of how great Android/Apache Harmony/Dalvik is, Java ME, etc., Java is still thought of as a heavy, non-deterministic, non-real-time capable language by many real-time and embedded developers strictly using C/C++.  I know that the real-time JVMs are out there, but they are expensive, and unrealistic for innovation without a ton of money up-front.  I believe the opportunity to be available with the OpenJDK project at this time with its recent alliances, and I hope to see innovation in the real-time Java arena.