Leveraging Quality
Migrating a Mature,
High-Level GUI Framework to Java
Overview
The value of a programming language is measured by how well it helps developers produce solutions.
A young language, like Java, usually incurs a significant penalty in value from its initial deficiency of good
high-level libraries and frameworks as compared to more mature languages. But Java has been amazingly
successful and a major cause of this success is the rapid and effective leveraging of quality work from other
OO languages and environments. The effort of developers to migrate good designs and code into Java
enabled the language to make a giant leap forward.
Island Pacific Systems used Java to build The Eye ™ , an OLAP (on-line analytical processor) for its retailing
data warehouse product. As part of this project, the Island Pacific team encountered significant deficiencies
in the existing Java libraries for producing a clean UI and Domain layering. Ultimately the team decided to
migrate the design of a mature, high-level GUI framework from Smalltalk over into Java. The resulting
framework increased the value of Java as a tool to Island Pacific with a relatively small investment of time.
Within this report, we will describe the context, process, and results of this migration experience. Overall,
the Island Pacific Systems team found Java to be very “receptive” to good designs and patterns from other
OO languages even though Java and its libraries are relatively young. Leveraging the high quality work
done in other OO languages was extremely useful and effective in solving Island Pacific’s project needs.
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