Sun bids adieu to mobile-specific Java

Despite making headway in mobile phones, Sun is already working to replace the mobile-specific version Java.

Java Standard Edition (SE) -- geared for desktop computers -- will gradually supplant Java Micro Edition (ME) as technology improvements allow more computing power be packed into smaller devices, said James Gosling, the Sun vice president often called the 'father of Java'.

"We're trying to converge everything to the Java SE specification. Cell phones and TV set-top boxes are growing up," Gosling said on Wednesday. "That convergence is going to take years."

The prime example of the trend is Sun's own JavaFX Mobile -- software Sun acquired through its takeover of SavaJe and which the company hopes mobile phone makers will embrace. JavaFX Mobile includes almost all of Java SE, though it's missing a few pieces such as CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), which helps software to work with other programs across a network.

Sun's Java expectation dovetails with other recent technology trends, most notably the emergence of Apple's iPhone, architecturally much more an Apple computer writ small than a mobile phone writ large. In particular, Apple uses a version of its regular Safari Web browser so users will have as much of the desktop Internet experience as possible.

The move to Java SE won't happen overnight. Rich Green, Sun's executive vice president of software, said he expects smartphones using various pared-down versions of Java to stay in the market for at least a decade.

But the shift already was under way. "All the work in Java ME had been pushing it closer and closer to Java SE," Gosling said.

Defragmenting mobile Java

Moving to Java SE could help fix one nagging problem with Java ME: fragmentation.

Java ME is a collection of abilities -- basic ones and higher-level options layered on top -- each defined by a detailed description called a Java specification request (JSR). For Java ME, there are a large number of these JSRs for various features, posing a challenge to Java's original tagline, "write once, run anywhere."

The tagline came about because a program written in Java could, in principle, run on any computer that had a Java virtual machine. The JVM is a software foundation that lets a generic Java program run on a particular computer. However, with the multiplicity of Java ME extensions, there was often little guarantee that a program written for one mobile phone would work on another.

Java SE has a much richer basic set of abilities, so using it instead of Java ME could theoretically restore some of Java's promise of software portability.

JavaFX mobile is one component of a multipronged effort called JavaFX which Sun announced in May at its JavaOne conference.

"JavaFX is probably the largest and most complex software engineering effort Sun has ever done," Gosling said.