There was a time I was very excited by the Java programming language. It was not that I was going to ever learn to program in Java, but the concept and the potential seemed very promising. As I understand the intent, Java was to offer two advantages: 1) it was to be cross platform and 2) it was to be Internet friendly.
The first idea assumed that programmers would develop an application once and this code would be “interpreted” by a free application associated with each operating system (windows, Mac OS, UNIX).
The second idea was that some Java applications would be downloaded from the Internet as needed rather than being stored on individual computers. In certain situations, this would change the hardware requirements and reduce costs.
It simply did not happen. I am not sure why. It seemed that the various parties could not agree on the “version” of java that would be promoted. Perhaps the business opportunities for individual companies prevented a common vision from being implemented.
I can’t say that everyone has given up on the vision. However, I do know of one company (eZedia) that had embraced the idea has now moved to some version of C because they have concluded this is simply not going to work.
I remembered my previous interest in this topic when I came across some of the resources developed by the National Council Of Teachers of Mathematics. This organization was supporting the development of applets that would allow users to explore mathematics in an interactive fashion.
For example, one applet offers a functional spreadsheet (the following is an image and not the actual applet).
I do encourage you to visit this site and explore some of the resources. A warning – I did find inconsistencies in my ability to use the resources depending on operating system and browser.
