Java's Path to Standardization
Amy Zuckerman -- EDN, July 12, 1999
Amherst, Mass.--The Java specifications moved a step closer to international standardization on June 23 when the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) voted to develop a standard for the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
The Java platform, created by Sun Microsystems Inc. allows for development of platform-independent software applications that can be read on any operating system. Java is most commonly used to run small applications known as "applets" over the Internet. The issue of whether Microsoft Corp. has attempted to subvert Java is part of the ongoing U.S. government antitrust case against the software giant and a legal dispute between the two companies.
There has been talk that Sun would rely on the courts to resolve the issue over Java and drop any attempt to protect its specifications through international standardization. But with the adjudication of the Microsoft antitrust case and the Sun-Microsoft Java dispute still pending, Sun has now stepped up activity on the standards front.
On one hand, turning Java into an international standard would grant Sun's version of Java worldwide recognition and acceptance and possibly create a market advantage against competitors like Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. However, going the international route could mean ceding future control of the standard's development, and in turn, control over future designs. The market implications are enormous.
Carl Cargill, head of standards for Sun, said the industry should not expect a formal Java international standard for at least a year. It should take at least six months to turn the Java language specifications, Java virtual machine specifications and Java API core class library specifications--all part of the Java standard edition (J2SE) version 1.2.2--into a standard for presentation to ISO. It could then take another six months to obtain the necessary consensus in ISO before Java could become an international standard, he said.
If ISO accepts Java for international standardization, Cargill said this will be the first major Internet standard to achieve that status.
In a surprise move, Microsoft was among 23 companies--all ECMA members--meeting in Kyoto, Japan, voting in favor of having ECMA develop a formal Java international standard. For several years Microsoft had waged a battle in ISO technical committees to keep Sun from presenting Java as an international standard. Sun officials had yanked Java from an ISO committee in May, citing Microsoft as the antagonist.
According to Cargill, Microsoft's change of heart was based on the "realization that the worldwide industry was in favor of Java being standardized. They saw no reason to oppose industry opinion."
Cargill said other companies supporting the ECMA process included Hitachi Ltd., IBM, Sony Corp., Philips Electronics and Siemens AG. Compaq Computer Corp. voted no, citing the fact that Sun would not relinquish the Java brand name as part of the international standardization process. Hewlett-Packard and NEC abstained. According to Cargill, HP officials said they did not have time to form a corporate opinion on the Java program, and NEC Electronics Inc. offered no reason. Dell Computer Corp., who did not submit a proxy and did not attend the session, lost its right to vote, he said.
Cargill said the next step will be for ECMA to form a technical committee to do the actual hands-on work of turning the Java specifications from a de facto industry standard to a formal international standard. There is no official timetable set for this process, though Cargill said a committee of ECMA members should be formed by September.
Sun has taken the unusual route of working through a European standards body. Cargill said Sun believes ECMA can move with the speed necessary to meet Web and Internet requirements.
"If Java becomes an international standard, this will make it a formal standard and mean that Java's strategic importance is recognized," Cargill said. "Java is used by over 1 million programmers. It's expected that number will grow to 1.7 million by the end of the year."
Although Sun shares its Java technology today, having made Java a partially open-source language, Cargill said moving to international standardization means that Sun is willing to share its success with the world.
"This is a major integration tool that increases the productivity of programmers because it allows them to write on all platforms," he said. "We're handing over maintenance of Java, which allows the formal standard to be relevant."
Going the ECMA route is a major departure for Sun, which has fought a hard, two-year battle to be accepted as a presenter of the standard to ISO's JCT 1 committee, a joint technical committee comprised of members of both ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission. Moreover, it is fairly unique for an American company to work through a European standards body en route to developing an international standard.
But all along this has been a unique and acrimonious case. Over the protests of Microsoft and Intel, among others, JCT 1 finally agreed that Sun could act as presenter last winter. Microsoft had argued that because of market considerations no single company should present and then maintain an international standard, meaning the same company would handle updates and modifications. JCT 1 members disagreed and allowed Sun to act as a presenter under the Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) procedures developed for high-tech standards.
However, Sun held back from submitting Java to JCT 1 over the issue of whether the company could control future maintenance of the standard. On April 29, Sun executives announced they were unhappy with the amount of control that JTC 1 would have over the Java specifications once it became an international standard. In an effort to bypass this control, Sun executives said they were considering other routes to getting Java adopted by ISO.
Ken Urquhart, manager of Java standardization at Sun, was quoted as saying that Sun was committed to "making our Java standards internationally recognized standards. We are still committed to taking our specifications through to ISO."
Urquhart said that the possibility of "bypassing of the ISO committee is the latest development in Sun's struggle to balance Java's promotion with the ability to maintain control over the technology. It would set Sun back several steps in the standardization process, though not all the way back to square one."
Sun executives such as Alan Baratz, president of the company's software division, have been careful to explain that their concern is not with ISO, but with the so-called Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) route to international standardization. Under this process, Sun would be required to turn maintenance of the Java standard over to ISO, something Sun considers unacceptable.
"Maintenance is defined as ongoing evolution, not just bug-fixing," Bartaz said. "We essentially would have to turn the ongoing definition of the platform over to ISO, which is something that we've always said we would not do," Baratz said.
In a recent press conference, Baratz blamed Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and the so-called Wintel world in general for creating an environment he described as unfavorable to gaining ISO recognition. He alleged that Microsoft, in particular, had spent "several million dollars" on a worldwide lobbying campaign to block ISO acceptance of Java as an international standard.
Calling Baratz's allegation untrue, John Montgomery of Microsoft's Standards Activities group issued a statement that called Sun's accusations a "smokescreen to distract from the fact that Sun has been unsuccessful in convincing JTC 1 to rubberstamp their proprietary process." Microsoft's investments of time and money to influence JTC 1 members approaches zero while Sun and its allies such as IBM have probably spent millions on their own Java lobbying, Montgomery said.
High-tech executives close to the situation say both companies have spent considerable time and money on the Java debate. While not taking sides, officials like Mike Smith, head of standards at ISO, said there has been a lot of pressure from the Microsoft side "to wrest control of the spec from Sun, and understandably the latter were not prepared to take the risk."
Sun's announcement raises a number of questions about the ability of the international standards system to produce standards for the high-tech industry. One of the main concerns is how high-tech companies can protect their intellectual property rights under the consensual model. Another concern is how a company can maintain future design control. And a third issue centers around whether it is appropriate for a single company to act as a presenter for an international standard.
Smith, who has been at the forefront of efforts to develop fast-track standardization procedures to meet high-tech industry needs, insists the issue here is the JTC 1 PAS process and "not the usual fast-track process." Smith said the PAS process "has generally worked reasonably well in relation to consortia where we both publish the resultant text and maintenance is handled jointly."
"The problem in this case," he said, "is that we are dealing with a corporate body and it would not be that healthy if maintenance of the international standard remained exclusively in the hands of that company."
Smith also said that the ISO will certainly think twice before allowing a single company to act as a standards presenter in the future.
