Apple WebObjects 5 User Manual
Page 14
14
Reviewer’s Guide
WebObjects 5
At the same time, the professional services portion of AES was reformulated as Apple iServices,
with a charter to focus on all of Apple’s Internet technologies, including WebObjects, Mac OS X
Server, and QuickTime Streaming Server.
Moving to Java
In its first several releases, WebObjects was written in Objective-C, a simple object-oriented
language that provided much of the inspiration for Java. As Java became more and more
important for server-side development, WebObjects 4.x added Java APIs. However, these
APIs accessed the Objective-C frameworks via a “bridge” that reduced performance and
complicated debugging. Therefore, in May 2000, Apple announced its intention to make
WebObjects a true Java application.
With WebObjects 5, Apple has delivered on that promise, and the original web application
server is now available in the language of the Internet: Java. This Java compatibility allows
WebObjects to run on virtually any server, and to easily integrate and interoperate with other
Java-based solutions. We expect the combination of a Java runtime with advanced native tools
for Mac OS X and Windows 2000 to enhance the already solid popularity of WebObjects with
customers needing rapid development of flexible, scalable web applications.