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Gosling: Blu-ray victory to spur Java creativity

So-called father of Java hopes that JavaFX will enable a Blu-ray graphical user experience beyond playing high-definition DVDs.

Chris Duckett Editor, TechRepublic Australia
Some would say that it is a long way from software engineering to journalism, others would correctly argue that it is a mere 10 metres according to the floor plan. During his first five years with CBS Interactive, Chris started his journalistic adventure in 2006 as the Editor of Builder AU after originally joining the company as a programmer. Leaving CBS Interactive in 2010 to follow his deep desire to study the snowdrifts and culinary delights of Canada, Chris based himself in Vancouver and paid for his new snowboarding and poutine cravings as a programmer for a lifestyle gaming startup. Chris returns to CBS in 2011 as the Editor of TechRepublic Australia determined to meld together his programming and journalistic tendencies once and for all.In his free time, Chris is often seen yelling at different operating systems for their own unique failures, avoiding the dreaded tech support calls from relatives, and conducting extensive studies of internets -- he claims he once read an entire one.
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Chris Duckett
2 min read
"Father of Java" James Gosling says he sees Blu-ray's victory over HD DVD as a catalyst for more interesting forms of entertainment for the disc format.

Speaking at the Sun Tech Day in Sydney, Gosling told ZDNet Australia's Builder AU that he hopes that Blu-ray Disc win--combined with the possibility of having Java's new graphical framework, JavaFX, within the Blu-ray specification--would enable a graphical user experience beyond solely playing Blu-ray discs.

"There's actually this Profile 2.0 spec for Blu-ray, which almost all of the Blu-ray players out now don't implement...that adds all this networking ability. So you can actually use a Blu-ray box to do things other than play Blu-ray discs," Gosling said. "You can do things that are hybrids between playing discs and content over the network."

Gosling cited the primitive nature of many current Blu-ray players as a reason for holding back the Blu-ray experience.

"The Blu-ray spec right now has really primitive graphics, which is kind of surprising for a spec that should be all about compelling visual experiences. But the folks in the consumer electronics industry tend to be really conservative--I mean, they want to be able to sell Blu-ray players for 50 bucks," he said.

"So they really cut down on some of the levels of aspiration," he said.

The mentality of developers was also in Gosling's sights for criticism.

"I think that a lot of the software development community--which I find really, really frustrating--is fixated on Web apps. They write their stuff on the server, it generates HTML, and there is this really big piece of the community that thinks that that is the universe," Gosling said.

"There's a lot more to it," he said. "Blu-ray is a pretty interesting corner of it."

Java forms part of the BD-J (Blu-ray Disc Java) platform for delivering bonus content to users of Blu-ray.

Chris Duckett of ZDNet Australia reported from Sydney.