"A guy has to get fresh once in a while
so the girl doesn't lose her confidence."
In Stockport, where men are men, and women pull pints, they have lined up the internal drinks in the foyer bar. Almost without exception, they are tall glasses of ale, and when the crowd bustle through the auditorium doors at half-time, the pumps are soon busy with refills. It is a respectable, well-groomed crowd in Davenport Theater tonight. The ladies have fake fur wraps, shiny blouses, the occasional pair of ballroom shoes. The gentlemen are besuited and combed and they bellow their conversation with bluff geniality. There is a sprinkling of thirtysomethings and a half-measure of even younger couples, but this is a roundedly middle-aged throng, tempted out on a cold night, by the promise of something that you hardly ever see any more.
It is the cutting of the digital ribbon.
Just a little while back in time, the technology had been through a radical dishwasher. Every second Joe, and his dog, had heard about this wonderful li'l thing called Internet and how it was going to change the way we live. The Internet caught the glare not only as a massive and pervasive global network but also as an instance of something that has evolved with no apparent designer in charge, keeping its shape very much like a flock of ducks. Nobody was the boss, and all the pieces were so far scaling admirably. Yet, of course the scores of pages across the vast skeins of the Internet had little more personality than a seahorse.
It was at this time that Sun Microsystems, by an accidental quirk of fate, realized that they had in their hands the aftermath of a failed electronics project, that they could engender into an Internet strategy. All it took was a little padding here and little pruning there -- and they had Java, a mini-revolution, in the hollow of their palms. No sooner did Java crack off the springboard than the culture-pundits started having premonitions of a cataclysmic paradigm-shift from desktop computing to networks, a brand spanking new digital revolution. It was the harbinger of Internet's future. The dressing in the salad-bowl of the World Wide Web. Like castor oil, it was toted as the cure for everything. The concept of a simple, achievable language that could be pecked on in an office or den caught on well with the average Johnny, and Sun made gobs of greenbags.
The digital ribbon had been cut over the ale; The obituary of Microsoft had been written; and not only in Stockport...
The concerned cyberpuppies and bar-stool critics hoped impressionistic tykes to join tattoos and sneakers in the pantheon of this dubious globe-spanning megatrend called JAVA! But then, every Titanic has its iceberg.
For just when you strapped on to the starship and started cruising towards the fifth quadrant's snack shop at warp speed, some spoil-sport friend of yours popped up and muttered the words, "Okay. Now let's see Java do something useful, like balance a checkbook or tally a balance sheet or teach the kids to rinse off the plates and put them in the dishwasher." That was when it struck you like a truck, "Can I do something tangible yet ?" Maybe you had no other way to look. Well, now it looks like its time to make room in the garage to dump all you've accomplished with the " paradigm wringin' " language, just alongside the 8-tracks.
For after almost a year of hibernation from the spotlight, Microsoft is back where it belongs (perhaps the feel of footprints on one's back is not so amusing a thrill after all :)
In retrospect, one cannot forget the days when, like your mother with a whistle in the lunch court, MS marshaled every nook and cranny of the digital landscape. It was with Windows 95 that their place was firmly cemented. But while their software-puppies were skiing in Hawaii on a break after delivering an over-matured Win 95, a fleet of other cottage industries (including Sun) started playing leapfrog with Internet technology. Many groups hankering to get a scoop of the net, which undeniably was (and is) the latest catch-phrase, screamed bloody murder and like swarthy crows eyeing their carrion, they swooped down on the formulae to become Internet-savvy.
Yet, as it turns out, Bill Gates is no snowbird to let his monolithic empire get dissolved in such a fashion. He has bolted right back with a you-cannot-cut-me-up technology. Indubitably, he does have the beef to do so.
Not a long time ago, MS manicured the computer screens with all the raw, lime-green wall-to-wall look on the monitors being accordioned into a feature called 'Windows'. This hit the common imagination so hard that today there are rare instances of smart desktops that do not sport Windows (unless, of course, the inmates at the local monastery prefer the calm, ol' DOS). In fact, to most people using Windows has become like riding a bicycle. You don't even remember learning how to do it, you just do it. With such ubiquity on millions of desktops around the globe, it was only logical to capitalize on the market.
Technically speaking, when you pick up a copy of Windows today, you get a pack of something called DLLs along with it. (As a matter of fact, these Dynamic Link Libraries are the very marrow of Windows). They are nothing but files that contain the necessary code to run the various programs on your machine. Quite like the Java applets, ActiveX Objects (hereinafter referred to as 'AXO' for convenience) wriggle down to your machine too, but the place where they score over the applets is that they employ some of the code already present in your computer in the form of DLLs. Therefore, with AXO, MS has hit the springboard again, just about as easily as a carpenter nails together two-by-four studs.
Remodeling the Material Girl
"Let him who takes the plunge,
If you are tearing your hair apart because after all the sweating on Java, something comes along and says "I'm better", then you are not alone. A cross-over from Java to ActiveX does indeed feel like being in a marathon and being asked to go rock-climbing at the finish line. But AXO has its good points. A products of Java's genre is like a new-born baby with good genes, but not yet sufficiently developed to have a recognizable character and strong physique. Most of the applets on the net are anemic, rarely more than one kind of opportunism or another. But AXO reinforces the fact that we are learning faster.
So, where do I hang my shingle?
"Beauty seldom recommends one
We think of ourselves as extremists when it comes to predicting and initiating change. Nonetheless, when it comes to technological avalanches, things are chugging along faster than one can believe -- there is obviously no speedometer on the electronic highway. It is like driving on the autobahn at 160 kph. Just as one realizes the speed he is going, zzzwoom, a rag-top convertible passes by, then another, and another. With such 'maximum-overdrive' temperament now so characteristic of the cyberspace, it is only prudent never to fall in love with your current technology.
Is Java better than AXO? Is JavaScript more compact as compared to Visual Basic Script? This "either/or" mentality is usually driven by the false belief that there is a universal 'best' solution for any given situation. It is false because people are different, situations change, and the circumstances may well be driven by the channel you have available. Therefore, our preferences, or quite where we hang our shingle, will vary based on our respective information predilections, our requirements etc. -- all drawn from the very large palette of digital life.
Java came in at a time when there was an "Adam-and-Eve" situation in the Internet market. There just was no one else. With AXO here, it will be the pre-occupation of foolish developers to wonder if their efforts towards Java were labor-lost. If 15 years of consultancy experiences count, let us state our opinion -- apparently AXO is a very powerful tool, and certainly more pragmatic for the day. That is for the simple reason that Java, as it stands now, is slightly too inclined towards 'will-be' features than 'are' ones. AXO, bless its heart, makes a fervent effort towards being readily functional.
Way back in the annals of history, when the great Indian emperor Shahjehan had erected the Taj Mahal (one of the seven wonders of the world), he had the fingers of the artisans diced up so the legendary monument could remain nonpareil. The folks at Sun and Netscape seem to adhere to a similar principle. They follow a simple we-don't-own-your-hard-disk stratagem, and their 'security features' that inevitably follow, are at times a pain in the neck. For they lock up a lot of possibilities, for instance, writing on a person's hard disk. AXO skimps a little on the orthodox securities of Java, with bytecodes sweeping in and being verified et al. In place of this, a slicker 'digital signature' has been introduced. When the objects are being sent over, a specific digital signature is slapped down on them, which is verified at the client's end by the browser. This snuffs out the odds of data-tampering. Sun could have embraced this signature policy too, but they are just not that well established yet.
In more ways than one, working with any Internet programming language is like remodeling a bathroom. You can spend time on practical things, like calculating the optimum dimensions for piping or choosing the proper brand of caulking to seal the sink and tub. Or you can spend your time on the more aesthetic options, like adding an oak toilet-paper holder, a marble counter top or a rattan cover the Kleenex box.
At the first sight, java does look a lot cleaner as a language to ornament web pages. In fact, that was the message we were lackadaisically propogating a few months ago. But, with MS back into the action, there had to be something better. For instance, we do not have a dearth of Visual Basic programmers because it is a neat technology itself. Now that we have AXO, these Visual Basic programmers will migrate in their hordes to AXO (and subsequently the Internet) and do great things which a pre-mature Java is still unable to furnish. As a matter of fact, in our tutorial that follows, we will prove how even the non-programmers can work wonders without having to learn any programming language.
Of course, a concept like OLE might not really be a nominee for a mass-participation sport, as Java had become. A layman does not raise his hand and say, "There. I know OLE". In fact, on the techno-terrain, there is rarely any concept that beats this technology. One can safely put his/her OLE knowledge at par with a pedigree in nuclear sciences or space medicine without sounding the least bloated. And AXO is a technique that adds still more punch to it.
Here's a handy example: as a programmer, and an insider into the hard-core computer technologies, one is bound to be rather intrigued by how browsers work. Believe it or not, here in India, Internet Explorer 2.0 works faster than the fairly tried-and-tested Netscape. With AXO, however, it is a cinch for me to design my own browser (provided I am familiar with OLE, of course). Or if I am in my creative moods, I can make an application which incorporates a browser and uses it in whatever my application is supposed to do.
Some prototypes of such programs, for instance a browser, are already given to us by Microsoft. They will serve as a creative fodder for the other developers. Remember, when the first spreadsheet called 'Visicalc' was introduced, we all swooned over it and said, "Wow, this is the ultimate". Then came 'Super-calc', 1-2-3 followed by still more versions of 1-2-3, and eventually Excel, which had more features than all the rest. With each version, there was a possibility for further improvement that you and me were overlooking, because we were busy singing paeans to it, but there was at least one programmer out there who sat back in his dusty cane chair and said over a pepperoni pizza, "I can do better than that!"
Objects work on a similar principle. What one developer does, can be used by another to tweak in to his application, or prune the former's work itself. Meanwhile, the flock of AXO programs already lurking on the WWW must serve as a food for thought for us. The point here is that if you are a smart programmer, you can achieve the skies with AXO, not only because you'll soon have so much around to prove it, but simply because its foundations are very strong.
Therefore, whether you patronize Java or AXO, or any other language for that matter, is a matter of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
Java and now, AXO --
Microsoft, for quite a spell, seemed to be sticking to Newton's adage "Whatever goes up must comes down". Maybe Newton was a lucky bloke who sat under a tree and watched apples falling on his head. But the good, ol' Gates has sprung back in to action once again, defying all the laws of corporate gravity. To be brutally honest, much of the kudos belong to Sun Microsystems Ltd. Had it not been for Java sweeping the world off its feet, maybe MS would never have come out with as brilliant a technology as AXO. Its the classic case of a guy getting fresh with a girl to keep her from losing her confidence.
Java and now its answer from Microsoft, are the bellwether for the future -- a system of small, little programs slithering across the amorphous blob of the web. This is what we prefer to call 'Cheesecake programming'.
However, it is noteworthy here that using a computer 30 years ago, like piloting a moon lander, was the realm of a precious few schooled in the hocus-pocus needed to drive these machines, sometimes with primitive languages or none at all (just toggle-switches and blinking lights!). There was perhaps a sub-conscious effort to keep it mysterious, like the monopoly of the monks of Shaolin or some bizarre religious rite in the Dark Ages. Not much has changed since. As surely today as then, technologies like AXO design to narrowcast the Internet to a certain flock of people, even though Internet has 'home' as its underlying concept.
As a slight deviation from its ordinary idiosyncrasies, MS seems to be underplaying the launch of AXO. For a change, they are not standing on the roof-tops and blowing their foghorns about how AXO is the latest dropping from Mount Sinai. Meanwhile, AT&T is busy pruning "Inferno" up, which is their claim to Internet programming. For Sun, it is time for some more sleepless nights.
Whatever the respective Internet strategies of the various heavyweights, and media-moguls, we prefer to keep our distance from the religious debates of who's in and who's out. As long as the bigwigs are at loggerheads, both the developer community as well as the end-users can rest assured of a reasonable fare.
And now the million dollar question --
Not bragging, we have one of the largest Java tutorials on the Internet today; we record an average of 12000-15000 hits every week; at least 350 sites have linked us, and for good reason; and we receive a few hundreds of mail every month telling us about the general response to our efforts.
And yet, we have abandoned the project on Java and embarked on AXO.
Call us turncoats or defectors or double-crossers, call us what you may, but we are not the shy-types when it comes to say, "I will be on the winning side". Of course, Scott McNealy does not know us, so there is not the slightest chance of any personal scuffle (for the record, Mr. Gates does not know we exist either). The only logical reason why we gave up on Java to pursue AXO is because it is a compelling technology. It is the magic wand for developers, if they want to delve in to it. Maybe when it comes to Internet strategies, as of today, Microsoft is still an underdog. But six months later, when the medals are being given away, we'll wager it is going to be Microsoft. No one else just has such infrastructure and such a neat headstart.
With AXO, programming for the things you always dreamed of, become as simple and just about as much fun as a plastic snap-together dragon from the bottom of a cracker Jack box that grandma gave you for the fifth birthday. From a technical standpoint, it far outshines the rather tentative Java.
Admittedly, we are not being nice to Sun and we definitely have forsaken Java. But we are very clear on one point -- we are not against Sun either. All we intend to state here is that Sun is heading for the guillotine by blowing Java out of proportions. According to their never-ending press reports, Java will soon prod electronic doodads and devices, dethrone operating systems and be instrumental in developing smart standalone software when none of it seems to show, even remotely, any signs of plausibility. That is what we are against -- ill-deserved sanction that it has received from the developer community.
It is apparently clear that Java is generating so much of unequitable hype merely because it is not a Microsoft product. There is no dearth of Microsoft-loathing folks not because they are against Microsoft itself but because something about Microsoft upsets them that they have probably failed to rationalize even to themselves. Nevertheless, one way or the other, Java befits the function of a subsidiary language . For instance, VRML 2.0 works fantastically with Java, even though they make rather strange bedfellows. As regards singular, separate Java programming, how can you trust a language that does not even let you have buttons with bitmaps (among a horde of other such cosmeticisms) just because it has to be a least common denominator?
All we are suggesting here is that, given the choice, we would certainly take the side of ActiveX objects since they are clearly a more pragmatic choice presently, by virtue of the incredible ease of their use within/with other applications. Sun must stop proffering Java as snake oil (the cure for everything) for in fact it is more like petroleum (an accessory for running the more magnanimous MS vehicles and VRML 2.0 and Netscape Navigator 3.0 and the new products that comes in the future.). Java ,we see it, is like the moon,the earth cannot do without. But then nobody lives on the moon. People consider it to be true that someday all software can be written in Java because Java wil be the only programming language around. Now, we have no doubt that Sun is a great company but somebody should stand up and say "Where is the beef ?" Java, we repeat, is great when we are using it with VRML 2.0.
For proof, the VRML 2.0 tutorial will demonstrate the capabilities of Java. It is here that Java shines and it will shine like the Sun.
In India at least, a hard disk is a cheapest component of a computer. Memory, monitors and microprocessors turn out to be more expensive. We would all want our computers to have a hard disk and would prefer loading or executing programs from the hard disk than from the Internet. We would rather have an applet come across the Internet and permanently reside on the hard disk. But as we are all aware of, Java doesn't write to the hard disk.Today I honestly believe that people have got swayed away by the hype which at times talk about the impossibilities of Java.
We know that we will receive a lot of flak for saying that The Emperor (Java) wears no clothes. We all will readily agree to the fact when history says, that Java initiated it all .
All said and done, there is little sense in mulling over the yesterdays, tomorrows and todays (which incidentally, are the yesterdays that you will worry about tomorrow). MS has struck the knell in strident notes, that it is here and is here for keeps. Our human minds have a mysterious tenet of never regaining their original dimensions once they have been stretched by a new idea. That seems rather grimly true in the case of Internet. What triggered out as a small experimental convenience is now the order of the day. Java might be a little overpampered kitten as of now, but the fullblown panther is here too. The last word is saved for grandma of course, whose vast skeins of computer knowledge end at the gadget's number-crunching capabilities :
"Did I hear 'active objects' ?"
Well, maybe Albert Einstein was serious when he said that you don't know a technology well enough until you can explain it to your grandma...
This is the tutorial that we have compiled and will keep on updating as and when we keep cracking the code. Have any suggestions, comments, ideas, cracked code, feed back ? Feel free to Get in touch with us.
Vijay Mukhi
remember to return it by Tuesday!"
woman to another."
A whole new regime of digital butlers
Why we divorced Sun?
HANG THE SHINGLE HERE...
THE ABOVE OBSERVATIONS ARE A JOINT EFFORT OF
Sonal Kotecha
Shashank Tripathi