drdobbsjournal
James Gosling
Few computer languages have arrived on the software development scene with such widespread fanfare as Java, a programming language unleashed by Sun Microsystems. Even nonprogrammers who wouldn't know C++ from Basic are talking about Java. Java (and its offspring JavaScript) has been endorsed by virtually every major software vendor. What Java delivers, and what has developers excited, is the capability to compile programs into a binary format that can be executed on many platforms without recompilation--embedded executable content, in other words.
In addition to his duties as a Sun Fellow and corporate vice president, James Gosling was the lead engineer on the Java project. As Arthur van Hoff, author of the Java compiler, recounted in one of the first published articles on the language ("Java and Internet Programming," DDJ, August 1995), James and a small team of Sun engineers began work on what became Java in 1990. Originally, James was developing software for the consumer electronics market, but he quickly recognized that the new language also addressed many of the issues related to software distribution over the Internet.
Still, Java isn't James' only claim to fame. He is a legendary figure among UNIX programmers, having written the first C version of Emacs and for doing the Postscript-based dynamic windowing environment for SunOS known as "NeWS." As Ray Valdes observed in a Dr. Dobb's Developer Update (August 1995) article on Java, "the maturity and experience of Gosling's vision is apparent to those ... who've programmed extensively in Java. From the start, the heft and balance of the language feels right, and continues to wear well over time."
James first became involved in distributed computing upon his arrival in 1984 at Sun. Before joining Sun, he built a multiprocessor version of UNIX, the original Andrew window system and toolkit, and several compilers and mail systems. James received a BS in computer science from the University of Calgary, Canada, and a PhD from Carnegie-Mellon University.
James Gosling
Few computer languages have arrived on the software development scene with such widespread fanfare as Java, a programming language unleashed by Sun Microsystems. Even nonprogrammers who wouldn't know C++ from Basic are talking about Java. Java (and its offspring JavaScript) has been endorsed by virtually every major software vendor. What Java delivers, and what has developers excited, is the capability to compile programs into a binary format that can be executed on many platforms without recompilation--embedded executable content, in other words.
In addition to his duties as a Sun Fellow and corporate vice president, James Gosling was the lead engineer on the Java project. As Arthur van Hoff, author of the Java compiler, recounted in one of the first published articles on the language ("Java and Internet Programming," DDJ, August 1995), James and a small team of Sun engineers began work on what became Java in 1990. Originally, James was developing software for the consumer electronics market, but he quickly recognized that the new language also addressed many of the issues related to software distribution over the Internet.
Still, Java isn't James' only claim to fame. He is a legendary figure among UNIX programmers, having written the first C version of Emacs and for doing the Postscript-based dynamic windowing environment for SunOS known as "NeWS." As Ray Valdes observed in a Dr. Dobb's Developer Update (August 1995) article on Java, "the maturity and experience of Gosling's vision is apparent to those ... who've programmed extensively in Java. From the start, the heft and balance of the language feels right, and continues to wear well over time."
James first became involved in distributed computing upon his arrival in 1984 at Sun. Before joining Sun, he built a multiprocessor version of UNIX, the original Andrew window system and toolkit, and several compilers and mail systems. James received a BS in computer science from the University of Calgary, Canada, and a PhD from Carnegie-Mellon University.