Hailing a so-called Java "renaissance," Mark Reinhold, chief architect for the Java platform group at Oracle, and IBM Distinguished Engineer John Duimovich, who is the company's Java CTO, focused on where Java is headed, citing improvements planned for the upcoming Java 7 and  8 releases and beyond. Appearing at the EclipseCon 2011 conference in Santa Clara, Calif., they also noted the new alliance between the two companies, in which IBM joined the open source Java project last October. Duimovich, though, stressed the two companies still would compete "aggressively." Reinhold also discussed a potential longerm unification of the Java SE (Standard Edition) and ME (Micro Edition) platforms; an Oracle representative later clarified that there is potential for such an endeavor but no formal announcement.

Until recently, Java technology advancements had been held at bay because of a logjam in the Java Community Process, for formally amending Java platforms, and the demise of Sun Microsystems, Reinhold said. "Happily, and was able to break that logjam. We're now moving things forward again."

"Oracle's number 1 priority for Java is to keep it number 1," Reinhold said, emphasizing that many of the company's products are written in Java. IBM, also with a lot of products dependent on Java, has years of experience in Java runtimes and believes it can improve Java, Duimovich said. "We want to make sure Java remains number 1."

IBM will focus on contributing class libraries and seeks improved internationalization for Java. Duimovich acknowledged IBM's prior work on the open source Java implementation and continued support of customers with the Harmony code.