Graphical and user interface capabilities have progressed in leaps and bounds since the early days of the Java language. The Java 2 platform contains a sophisticated cross-platform user interface architecture that consists of numerous high-level components, an advanced feature-rich device-independent graphics system, and a host of multimedia extensions. This article explores this progression, examines the capabilities of the current version 1.3 in detail, and looks to the future to see what release 1.4 will offer.

Neural nets may be the future of computing. A good way to understand them is with a puzzle that neural nets can be used to solve. Suppose that you are given 500 characters of code that you know to be C, C++, Java, or Python. Now, construct a program that identifies the code's language. One solution is to construct a neural net that learns to identify these languages. This article discusses the basic features of neural nets and approaches to constructing them so you can apply them in your own coding.

This article shows you how to combine and leverage the best parts of Jiro technology and the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) initiative. Using familiar examples from the previous two articles of this column, this article introduces the WBEM client technologies for accessing and manipulating data in a CIMOM. It then shows you how to access the same data more elegantly and efficiently, by rearchitecting the Jiro management facade to act as the interface to the CIMOM. Finally, he talks about the need for greater standardization of Jiro management facades and discusses the future of management application programming under a combined Jiro and WBEM development platform.

In the real world of everyday computing (and development), there are many situations where "whipping up a Java program" to perform a task is either impractical or too time consuming. This article takes you into the underground world of FESI (Free EcmaScript Interpreter), where deploying the Java language in a quick-and-dirty fashion is the norm rather than the exception. Article includes code snipets.

This article leads you into the gray zone between modeling and method, with a look at requirements gathering via use case modeling. In particular, this article focuses on the relationship between user interfaces, system interfaces, and use case descriptions.

This is a continuation of the three-part series on building resource management applications. It takes a look at the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) initiative. WBEM serves to standardize the description and use of managed resources in enterprise networks. Follow along as the author describes the components that comprise WBEM, and practice using the technology with a simple filesystem example.

If you're looking for a unique programming challenge, try your hand at building a management application for a distributed, cross-platform network. This article is the first in a three-part series that looks at how Sun Microsystems's Jiro technology and the Distributed Management Task Force's Web-Based Enterprise Management Initiative (WBEM) can simplify the creation of management applications for heterogeneous environments.

If you want to build and run faster Java applications on the IBM Developer Kit for Linux, version 1.3, roll up your sleeves and prepare to get dirty. This article provides hands-on instruction for profiling, monitoring, and performance tuning not only your IBM Developer Kit, but your hardware capacity, the Linux 2.2.x kernel, and your Java applications.

GUIs are generally designed with a model-view-controller architecture in which the view is decoupled from the model. The separation presents a challenge to automated testing because it's difficult to verify that a state change in the model is reflected appropriately in the view -- it spawns the infamous "Liar View." This installment of Diagnosing Java Code examines the Liar View bug pattern.

If you've ever wanted to build your own supercomputer but have been held back by the demands of parallel programming in C, Pseudo Remote Threads is for you. This prize-winning Java programming model greatly simplifies parallel programming on clusters, bringing supercomputing out of the laboratory and into the hands of everyday Java programmers. Article includes code snipets.