Dr. Dobb's Journal July 2003
In addition to the regular July issue you're holding in your hands right now, we're pleased to provide a bonus e-zine, also on Java programming. This special additional issue, which is delivered as a PDF document, covers topics ranging from the Java Transaction library and J2SE to Xlets and web services, with articles by Al Williams, Eric Giguere, and others. The e-zine is available at no cost; all you have to do is go to http://www.ddj.com/ and download it.
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While I'm at it, let me say that you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din, if you can keep track of J2EE Version blah-blah this and J2SE Version yadda-yadda-yadda that. For the record, there's the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Version 1.4, Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) Version 1.4.1, and Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME), along with its CLDC 1.0.4, MIDP 2.0, Wireless Toolkit 2.0, and on and on...
Of course, J2EE 1.4 has just been released, and Aaron Walsh takes a look at it in both this regular issue (see "JavaServer Pages 2.0") and the bonus e-zine ("Web Services & J2EE 1.4"). Likewise, J2SE 1.5 is due within the next few months, and will support features such as generics, autoboxing, typesafe enums, static import, metadata, and more. With all these toolkits and ever-changing version numbers, you can't help but long for the likes of automobile tycoon Henry Ford, who said consumers could buy a Model T in any color they wanted—"so long as it's black."
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And speaking of tycoons, from his business practices to his over-the-top (or is that Big Top?) house, it's always fun to poke fun at Bill Gates. That said, Gates should be sincerely commended for his charitable giving, primarily in the area of public health.
Through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates has given millions of dollars to address health-related problems, particularly to check the spread of infectious diseases in developing countries. In the first half of this year alone, the Foundation has announced a $25 million trust fund for an oral polio vaccine in Nigeria (Africa's most polio-endemic country), a $60 million grant to accelerate HIV/AIDS microbicide research, and a $200 million grant to "identify critical scientific challenges in global health and increase research on diseases that cause millions of deaths in the developing world," noting that only 10 percent of medical research is currently devoted to diseases that cause 90 percent of the world's health burden.
Credit where credit's due.
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Although he never rose to the level of tycoon, George Morrow, like Adam Osborne (whom Michael Swaine remembers in this month's "Programming Paradigms"), was nonetheless a personal computer pioneer and visionary in his own right. And like Osborne, Morrow recently passed away.
An early participant of the legendary Homebrew Computer Club, Morrow was a mathematician and engineer who played a role in designing the S-100 bus before going off to launch his own company, originally called "Microstuff," then "Thinker Toys," and finally "Morrow Designs." While Osborne set out to build the first "Volkscomputer," to my way of thinking (based on hands-on experience with both) Morrow actually pulled it off. The Morrow Design Micro Decision, built around a Z-80 running CP/M, was, well, functional. Okay, it wasn't portable, but then I didn't need for it to be, plus it came bundled with a lot more software.
Morrow was a delightful man and creative engineer who had high standards, both personally and professionally. You know so because he said so in his little red book entitled Quotations From Chairman Morrow: "I believe in standards. Everyone should have one."
Jonathan Erickson
editor-in-chief
jerickson@ddj.com