JavaOne: Interoperability frustrations aired

Web services, integration remain works in progress

Despite the frustrations, the audience was pleased just to have the two vendors on the same stage.  One audience member said, "It's good see both of you [Microsoft and Sun officials] together," which drew applause from the crowd.

An earlier panel entitled "Java and .Net: Interoperability Challenges and Rewards," focused on Web services as a key to harmony between disparate systems.

"Interoperability is by far the major driver for Web services from our perspective," said panelist Eduardo Pelegri-Llopart, a Distinguished Engineer at Sun. he said. "We want to make the Java platform the best place to write Web services."

Microsoft is committed to interoperability in its planned Indigo technology planned for the XP, 2003, and Longhorn version of Windows, said Chiesa, who participated as a panelist in both sessions.

"We're still trying to work things out," with Indigo, he said.

"We will not ship without getting the interoperability," Chiesa said. There are no plans, however, to offer Indigo to open source developers, said Chiesa. He said he could not comment on what the licensing stipulations for Indigo might be other than that Windows users would have the technology automatically.

Chiesa noted the existence of Microsoft-centric users. "They don't think there's anything outside their .Net wall. They don't even see Java," said Chiesa.

Chiesa vowed that the company wants its Windows products to interoperate with other systems, such as Java. Microsoft products do not have to run on multiple platforms but must connect to them, he said. Interoperability "is an imperative," said Chiesa.

"We're still going to be Windows-oriented," he said.

Panelists during the .Net-Java interoperability session stressed the importance of the Web Services Security specification, but audience members strongly favored Secure Sockets Layer [SSL] at least for the moment.

"[SSL is] simple and available. Web Services Security is not available. It's complex," an audience member said.

BEA Systems' Mark Nottingham, a senior principal technologist, stressed the newness of Web services. "It's a very young industry. I think the story's going to come together a lot better over the next year," he said.

Nottingham cited interoperability issues with XML Schema pertaining to data binding. He, too, said he would not be surprised to see WS-I or W3C address the issue.

During a roundtable session pertaining to the Java Community Process (JCP) held earlier on Wednesday, Don Deutsch, a JCP executive committee member and vice president of standards strategy at Oracle, expressed an interest in having Microsoft participate in the JCP.

"I'm pleased that they're here at JavaOne and we'd love to have them participate," Deutsch said.

"But you have to recognize that .Net is a closed, single-source technology and we're working on a collaborative effort to create a technology that's shared," said Deutsch. "But maybe we can build some bridges."

"I'd be surprised if we were ever engaged in extending the .Net platform," as part of the JCP, Deutsch said.

Asked if Microsoft would consider joining the JCP, Chiesa in an interview said there were "no plans along those lines.

"There is a Java community and Microsoft participates, but we're not a member of the JCP," Chiesa said.