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Founder and lead designer of the Java programming language.
Key Dates and Places
Born Date: May 19, 1955.
Born Place: Near Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Career
Past occupations: Software developer, Computer Scientist.
Previous Place of Work: Sun Microsystems (acquired by Oracle), Google, Liquid Robotics (acquired by Boeing), Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Achievements and Recognition
Awards: Officer of the Order of Canada (OC), The Economist Innovation Award, Werner Heisenberg Medal, IEEE John von Neumann Medal, Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.
Education
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Calgary. Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University (thesis titled 'The Algebraic Manipulation of Constraints').
Skills
Expertise in programming language design, compiler construction, virtual machines, and software development. Specifically Java, C, C++.
Languages
Languages Spoken: English.
Accent: Canadian.
Main Milestones
Birth in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
May 19, 1955
James Arthur Gosling was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. From an early age, he demonstrated a keen interest in electronics and computers, foreshadowing his future career in computer science. He displayed a natural aptitude for understanding complex systems and tinkering with technology.
Building a Remote Control System
Early Exposure to Electronics
Even as a teenager, Gosling's passion for electronics was evident. He designed and constructed a remote control system for a model train set, showcasing his early ingenuity and resourcefulness in applying technology to solve practical problems.
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, University of Calgary
1977
Gosling earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Calgary. This marked the formal beginning of his academic journey in the field, providing him with a solid foundation in the principles of computer science and programming.
Ph.D. in Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
1983
Gosling obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. His doctoral research focused on manipulating constraints in user interfaces, an area that would later influence his work on Java's graphical user interface libraries. This period honed his research skills and deepened his understanding of advanced computer science concepts.
Sun Microsystems Era
1984-2010
Gosling joined Sun Microsystems, a pivotal moment in his career. It was at Sun that he led the team that developed Java, a revolutionary programming language designed to be platform-independent. Java quickly gained widespread adoption and became a cornerstone of modern software development.
Creation of Java
1991-1995
During his time at Sun Microsystems, Gosling and his team developed Java. Initially conceived as a platform for interactive television, Java's 'write once, run anywhere' philosophy made it incredibly versatile and appealing for a wide range of applications, from web applets to enterprise-level software.
Oracle Acquisition of Sun Microsystems
2010
Oracle Corporation acquired Sun Microsystems, including Java. Gosling briefly remained with Oracle before eventually departing. This marked a significant shift in the ownership and governance of Java, leading to changes in its development and licensing.
Google Employment
2011-2016
Gosling joined Google, where he worked on various projects, including contributions to the development of tools for programming and virtual machines. He later focused on ocean robotics, demonstrating his continued interest in exploring diverse technological domains.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
2017
Gosling joined Amazon Web Services (AWS). His work at AWS is centered around cloud computing and related technologies. The specifics of his role at AWS are not widely publicized but involve contributing to Amazon's cloud infrastructure.
Continued Influence
Present
James Gosling continues to be a respected figure in the computer science community. He remains active in the industry, sharing his insights and perspectives on the future of technology and programming. His contributions to Java have had a lasting impact, and his work continues to inspire new generations of computer scientists and software engineers.
Gosling was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2004 for the conception and development of the architecture for the Java programming language and for contributions to windowing systems.
Gosling joined Sun Microsystems in 1984, where he worked for the next 26 years.[9] At Sun he invented an early Unix windowing system called NeWS, which became a lesser-used alternative to the still used X Window System, because Sun did not give it an open source license.[citation needed]
He is known as the father of the Java programming language.[10][11] He got the idea for the Java VM while writing a program to port software from a PERQ by translating Perq Q-Code to VAX assembler and emulating the hardware. He is generally credited with having invented the Java programming language in 1994.[12][13][14]
He created the original design of Java and implemented the language's original compiler and virtual machine.[15] Gosling traces the origins of the approach to his early graduate student days, when he created a p-code virtual machine for the lab's DEC VAX computer, so that his professor could run programs written in UCSD Pascal. In the work leading to Java at Sun, he saw that architecture-neutral execution for widely distributed programs could be achieved by implementing a similar philosophy: always program for the same virtual machine.[16]
He left Sun Microsystems on April 2, 2010, after it was acquired by the Oracle Corporation,[10] citing reductions in pay, status, and decision-making ability, along with change of role and ethical challenges.[18] He has since taken a very critical stance towards Oracle in interviews, noting that "during the integration meetings between Sun and Oracle, where we were being grilled about the patent situation between Sun and Google, we could see the Oracle lawyer's eyes sparkle."[11] He clarified his position during the Oracle v. Google trial over Android: "While I have differences with Oracle, in this case they are in the right. Google totally slimed Sun. We were all really disturbed, even Jonathan [Schwartz]: he just decided to put on a happy face and tried to turn lemons into lemonade, which annoyed a lot of folks at Sun."[19] However, he approved of the court's ruling that APIs should not be copyrightable.[20]
In March 2011, Gosling joined Google.[21] Six months later, he followed his colleague Bill Vass and joined a startup called Liquid Robotics.[1] In late 2016, Liquid Robotics was acquired by Boeing.[22] Following the acquisition, Gosling left Liquid Robotics to work at Amazon Web Services as Distinguished Engineer in May 2017.[23] He retired in July 2024.[24]
He has worked as an advisor at the Scala company Lightbend,[25] Independent Director at Jelastic,[26] and Strategic Advisor for Eucalyptus,[27] and is a board member of DIRTT Environmental Solutions.[28]
2007: made an Officer of the Order of Canada.[32] The Order is Canada's second highest civilian honor. Officers are the second highest grade within the Order.
Ken Arnold, James Gosling, David Holmes, The Java Programming Language, Third Edition, Addison-Wesley Professional, 2000, ISBN0-201-70433-1
James Gosling, Bill Joy, Guy L. Steele Jr., Gilad Bracha, The Java Language Specification, Second Edition, Addison-Wesley, 2000, ISBN0-201-31008-2
Gregory Bollella (Editor), Benjamin Brosgol, James Gosling, Peter Dibble, Steve Furr, David Hardin, Mark Turnbull, The Real-Time Specification for Java, Addison Wesley Longman, 2000, ISBN0-201-70323-8
Ken Arnold, James Gosling, The Java programming language Second Edition, Addison-Wesley, 1997, ISBN0-201-31006-6
Ken Arnold, James Gosling, The Java programming language, Addison-Wesley, 1996, ISBN0-201-63455-4
James Gosling, Bill Joy, Guy L. Steele Jr., The Java Language Specification, Addison Wesley Publishing Company, 1996, ISBN0-201-63451-1
James Gosling, Frank Yellin, The Java Team, The Java Application Programming Interface, Volume 2: Window Toolkit and Applets, Addison-Wesley, 1996, ISBN0-201-63459-7
James Gosling, Frank Yellin, The Java Team, The Java Application Programming Interface, Volume 1: Core Packages, Addison-Wesley, 1996, ISBN0-201-63453-8
James Gosling, David S. H. Rosenthal, Michelle J. Arden, The NeWS Book: An Introduction to the Network/Extensible Window System (Sun Technical Reference Library), Springer, 1989, ISBN0-387-96915-2
^Gosling, James (August 31, 2004). "A Conversation with James Gosling". ACM Queue. ACM. Retrieved July 3, 2014. At Sun he is best known for creating the original design of Java and implementing its original compiler and virtual machine.
^McMillan, W.W. (2011). "The soul of the virtual machine: Java's ability to run on many different kinds of computers grew out of software devised decades before". IEEE Spectrum. 48 (7): 44–48. doi:10.1109/MSPEC.2011.5910448. S2CID40545952.
This is a community hub built on top of the James Gosling Wikipedia article. Here, you can discuss, collect, and organize anything related to James Gosling. The purpose of the hub is to connect people, foster deeper knowledge, and help improve the root Wikipedia article.
This is a community hub built on top of the James Gosling Wikipedia article. Here, you can discuss, collect, and organize anything related to James Gosling. The purpose of the hub is to connect people, foster deeper knowledge, and help improve the root Wikipedia article.
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