The Future
Products
promised in the near future:
New
class libraries and API's
- Multimedia
New ways to handle sound and graphics
Display movies and live video using Java
- Animation
2-D for now
- Telephony
Programming kit to write voice-communications applications
- Electronic
Commerce
e.g. secure transactions
-
Database Connectivity
JDBC
Java-in-an-OS
Forthcoming releases of various operating systems will have a built-in Java
virtual machine
Windows
Mac-OS
Solaris
Java-OS
Stand-alone mini operating system that is really just the Java VM plus some
device drivers
e.g. for the `Internet PC'
Java
for embedded systems
Stripped-down Java for use in appliances and other devices
Integration
with Microsoft's ActiveX
- Use Java to write controls and scripts for all Microsoft applications
- E.g. Call Java from Visual Basic or Microsoft Excel
- or vice-versa
- Information: http://www.microsoft.com/intdev
- Note that some consider ActiveX to be a superior substitute for Java
Predictions
(not to be trusted)
- Java will be a dominant language over the next 5 years
- It will probably exceed C++ in usage within a couple of years.
- There will be many extensions and changes that may cause headaches for
developers.