James Gosling
Mastermind of Java
Growth After the Bubble
Despite the recession, despite the tech bubble bursting, despite Sun duking it out with Microsoft in the enterprise, Gosling remains steadfastly optimistic about the future of Java and the Internet. After all, Java has been a dominant language for a decade; it also is a key technology in the age networked-embedded devices in everything from toasters to cars.
“When the Internet bubble popped,” Gosling explains, “it became popular to make disparaging remarks about the way the Internet is going. But if you look at the numbers, the Internet has never stopped growing. And we’ve only seen a really tiny fraction of what ends up on the Internet. The Internet is going to be a much bigger thing than we ever saw, even at the height of the bubble.”
Much of development, he says, is happening on the edges. “There are large boxes in the middle of the network,” Gosling says, “that handle all the infrastructure computing, whether it’s some website doing stock trading or managing a big database. Then, out on the edges, there are all kinds of things feeding into that and they’re all connected.
“These edge pieces aren’t just the desktop, they’re cell phones. They’re railroad locomotives, medical instruments, automobiles — anything with a digital system and that’s just about everything. UNIX systems and Java are showing up in all of these.”
“The Internet is going to be a much bigger thing than we ever saw, even at the height of the bubble.”
High-Function Cell Phones
People are finding really interesting ways to use digital technology to make all kinds of different aspects of our lives better, Gosling says, citing, as an example, specialized versions of Java running in cell phones.
“If you go to Japan,” he says, “high-function cell phones have been out there for a couple of years. People run software games on their cell phones and all kinds of real applications: calendars, expense reports, email, charting, data browsing, data entry of various sorts. I’ve even seen an app where, if you’re diabetic, you plug your blood sugar monitor into your cell phone and it can be sitting there analyzing your blood sure as you walk around — and conceivably dialing 911 for you.”
A Big Pile of Beans
During a visit to Brazil, Gosling saw the potential of the Internet realized in medicine. With many lines of code — Gosling says it’s just “a big pile of Java beans” — the Brazilian National healthcare system links 12 million people in 44 cities. “I would love to live in Brazil just to have that infrastructure,” Gosling says with a tone of unabashed admiration.
