GTE Brews a Mixed Bag of Apps
Coding errors are down by 75 percent. Productivity is up by a factor of two.

Shaygan Kheradpir, GTE's assistant vice president for GTE Information Technology for Architecture and Planning, lets the numbers speak for themselves when assessing applications written in Java today versus C++ 18 months ago. Kheradpir is a pragmatist, and while he finds Java imperfect, if he had the decision to do over, he says he'd still pick Java.

Today, GTE relies heavily on Java for operations support systems, both Web-based and client/server, that serve thousands of users and involve critical applications, including a bundled order-entry system used to place orders for GTE's wireline, wireless, paging and IP-fax services. Its front end is in Java; the back end is based on CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture). In late summer, GTE was working to give Internet customers direct access to the application over the Net.

But GTE isn't using Java in a vacuum. Kheradpir says GTE is directionally committed to Java, but finds itself using a mix of languages to optimize applications. If an application requires sophisticated logic, GTE tends to use Java. But where performance problems occur--like applications that depend on heap activity--it might use HTML or JavaScript. C++ is still in the mix, though more apps are now being written in Java. Microsoft's Java-based Visual J++ is even used on occasion when Windows client optimization is required; GTE uses Sun, Microsoft and third-party Java Virtual Machines (JVMs). This flexibility extends even across individual applications. Kheradpir says, for example, that the Java-based front end on its order-entry application could be fully replaced with HTML to make it better suited for the Internet.

GTE has about five major software systems that rely on some sort of Java blend. "We've found, on the server side, programming in Java is particularly effective for lighter-weight processes, servlets and things of that nature--things that are complicated logic-wise, but not CPU-intensive." The back-end portability and access afforded with new database tools for Java is very important "in an environment with mainframes and thousands of Unix and PC servers."

GTE relies on about 200 hard-core Java developers and a system in which those with the most experience--typically about two years---act as mentors to less-experienced coworkers.

If Kheradpir could do anything to Java, he'd stabilize it. It's understandable, he says, that a three-year-old language is a moving patchwork, but he's hoping that some stability will come with implementations based on Java Development Kit 1.2, which is expected to be ready for production by year's end. He also hopes for portability improvements, though he deems Java better in this respect than any other language.

"Our key drivers are stability and standards," Kheradpir says. "If Java is to become a key language, like C became, it needs to get the stability that attracts third-party developers." One thing he believes may help is the growing convergence of Microsoft's COM (Component Object Model) distributed architecture with the Object Management Group's CORBA. Today, GTE uses both, with an emphasis on CORBA, which Kheradpir says he prefers because it is newer, and, therefore, more closely matched to Internet networking models and enterprise computing. However, he says he thinks the two will be on a par within 12 months and that bridges between the two will eventually end this architectural battle.