TBTF for 1995-11-29: Dissing Java; Netscape 2.0b3; savvy search

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A dark cup of Java

You've heard me dieseling on about the coming impact of Java (TBTF for
1995-11-08, 1995-08-25, 1995-07-23, 1995-05-24, and 1995-05-23).

Now for a few dissenting voices.

In the early summer of this year I saw Java christened the "Virus Implemen-
tation Language" in some newsgroup or other (can anyone supply a citation?).
Here is a delicious rant along these lines, reprinted by permission, from
Matthias Neeracher <neeri at iis dot ee dot ethz dot ch>.

> My humble opinion is that it's sort of surprising how many people think
> that computer science as we know it has ended after reading about an as
> yet unproven, prerelease quality variant of C++ with garbage collection
> and a cute alternative to multiple inheritance.
>
> While Java probably could be made to fit into a SOM world (if you abandon
> garbage collection and most of the native object oriented features), I
> don't see how it could *replace* SOM (It talks Pascal even worse than Mac
> SOM currently does, so Peter Lewis will never use it :-). I'm not aware
> of any Bentoesque library modules being part of Java, so I don't see how
> it could possibly be a replacement for OpenDoc.
>
> My prediction of the Java timeline is approximately as follows:
>
> Spring 96: Final release of Java appears, along with approximately 30
> published books about it.
>
> Summer 96: Bored bonehead writes virus in Java, places it on WWW.
>
> Oct. 31, 1996: All machines with a WWW client melt down.
>
> Winter 96: Surviving Webmasters open underground WWW, featuring hourly
> changing ports, banning client side scripting forever. Sun Java team
> granted political asylum by Iraq.
>
> Remember, you read it here first.
> Matthias

See also Tom Christiansen's "Java Uber Alles?", which takes issue with the
assertion that Java will ever displace tcl and Perl as WWW prototyping lan-
guages -- <http://www.perl.com/perl/versus/java.html>; and Felix Sebastian
Gallo's further elequoent dismembering of Java in favor of new contenders
pgpsafeperl and LPSP -- <http://www.perl.com/perl/versus/java-safeperl.html>.
These emergent language/environments he describes as follows:

> pgpsafeperl allows you to download code off the net (sound familiar?),
> verify both its sender and its creator, assign the code an arbitrary
> set of execution constraints based on the sender/creator, and then
> execute it in a trusted compartment. Limited PSP goes a step further
> by limiting the compartment to provide even further security against
> runaway or aggressor programs. Both provide the code with a full list
> of its allowances and proscriptions through a very simple but com-
> pletely informative API. The wall of security is hard, provided by
> the environment and the operating system, not soft, like algorithmic
> verification.

Netscape 2.0 beta 3

The third beta is out for all platforms; it expires on 1996-02-04. The Macintosh
version appeared without announcement on Netscape's server in the middle of
last week. (See <http://home.netscape.com/comprod/mirror/index.html>.) Of
interest to developers, Netscape has put up an SDK for creating Navigator
plug-ins, with design specs and code examples.

The 2.0 betas (for Macintosh at least, and I assume for the other platforms
- -- this ought to be core code) are stricter on HREF syntax than previous
versions. For example, missing closing quotes slip through Netscape version
1.1 just fine: <A HREF="test.html> will fail and give odd visual results with
the beta browser.

The HTML hack that let you define multiple backgrounds for a page has been
eliminated (i.e., fixed). Too bad, this was a favorite of mine, guaranteed
to cause jawdrop ("How did they _do_ that?) the first time you saw it on a
Web page. For an example, save the following in a text file and feed it to
your copy of Netscape Navigator 1.1; then try it on a beta Netscape. (Hint:
the first BODY tag wins.)

  <HTML>
  <BODY BGCOLOR=#FF22FF> <BODY BGCOLOR=#EE33EE> <BODY BGCOLOR=#DD44DD>
  <BODY BGCOLOR=#CC55CC> <BODY BGCOLOR=#BB66BB> <BODY BGCOLOR=#AA77AA>
  <BODY BGCOLOR=#998899> <BODY BGCOLOR=#779977> <BODY BGCOLOR=#66AA66>
  <BODY BGCOLOR=#55BB55> <BODY BGCOLOR=#44CC44> <BODY BGCOLOR=#33DD33>
  </HTML>

I certainly can't recommend beta 3 to any but the intrepid. It crashes a lot.
So did betas 1 and 2, but in different places. Netscape is playing the seem-
ingly unavoidable shell game with bugs as they rototill the code toward FCS.

Savvy Search

For the latest wrinkle in Net search engines -- parallel agent power -- check
out Savvy Search at <http://guaraldi.cs.colostate.edu:2000/form/>, the creation
of grad student Daniel Dreilinger <dreiling at cs dot colostate dot edu>. A single click
submits searches in parallel to some subset of

It also has interfaces in six languages.

Net notary and Net backup

A novel business idea: NetBack <http://www.netback.com/> provides a service
whereby for $6 you can ftp a file (up to a half megabyte) to their computer;
they timestamp and notarize the file and securely store it for 10 years,
longer for more money. (They immediately mirror your file to four computers
miles apart, and once a day store optical disks in two separate bank vaults.)
It is "the world's first, real-time document registration service... a time-
and-date stamped record of when a computer file was first created." They en-
courage you to encrypt files before storing them. The service sounds like a
natural for a writer, artist, inventor, any kind of creator concerned about
proveable copyright. And for patrons of the Fearmonger's Shop... yes, I know
my hard drive is going to fail someday...

Commercial spammers See also TBTF for 1997-10-20, 1996-10-31, 10-09, 09-08, 08-25, 1995-12-22, 11-29

A lawsuit for spam

>>From Edupage (1995-11-28):

> A Gaithersburg, Md. company is drafting a lawsuit against Philadelphia-
> based Promo Enterprises for using its "reply.net" address in a mass
> commercial e-mailing it sent to 171,000 people. ReplyNet Inc. provides
> a service to companies that send promotional literature online to
> people who request it, giving them a "reply.net" address for return
> mail. ReplyNet's president says Promo Enterprises used its address
> without authorization, and claims its reputation has been ruined as
> evidenced by the deluge of angry e-mail it received after Promo's
> mailing. Apologies and explanations were sent to everyone who wrote,
> but "basically their response was 'Leave us alone -- we don't want to
> hear from ReplyNet ever again.' So the damage has been done," says
> ReplyNet's president. (St. Petersburg Times 25 Nov 95 E8)

Followup: Vermeer Technologies

TBTF for 1995-11-19

>>From the Weekly Recap (1995-11-26):

> Vermeer Technologies Inc. announced an agreement with Open Market
> Inc. to integrate and bundle Vermeer's FrontPage WWW publishing
> tool with Open Market's WebServer and Commerce product lines.
> FrontPage is a client/server Web publishing environment developed
> for non-programmers, and is Vermeer's first product. Vermeer also
> is bundling FrontPage with American Internet's SiteBuilder WWW
> server for Novell NetWare environments. Vermeer also announced
> reseller agreements with BBN Planet Corp. to resell FrontPage as
> part of BBN's Web Advantage services, and with Tribune Media
> Services, to resell FrontPage as part of TMS' WebPoint Internet
> content packages, which enable newspapers and broadcasters to
> augment their Web sites with interactive content.

>>Edupage -- mail listproc@educom.edu without subject
> and with message: subscribe edupage <your name> .

>>Weekly Recap -- mail majordomo@case.wsgr.com without subject
> and with message: subscribe multimedia-list .

• Previous message: Keith Dawson: "TBTF for 1995-11-26: Internet advertising straws in the wind; four followups"