The Tampa Bay OS/2 Users' Group (TBOUG) formally closed its doors after five
years of operation but is re-opening on January 1st as the Tampa Bay Java Users'
Group (TBJUG). At TBOUG's year-end meeting held December 2nd, the membership voted
to change its name and focus to TBJUG effective the first of the new year.
"The shift to Java was inevitable," said TBOUG Founder and current Secretary
Tim Bryce. "IBM is putting a lot of emphasis on Java and
less on its operating systems, consequently the move to a Java based
user group is only natural."
Java is a programming language developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.which
provides developers with the ability to write computer software
that will run the same on multiple computer platforms without having
to re-compile the source code; "Write once, run anywhere" is the Java
slogan.
The move to Java does not mean an abandonment of OS/2 by the user group.
"Quite the contrary," contends Bryce, "IBM just released version
1.1.7 of its Java Development Kit for OS/2 Warp to rave reviews.
Consequently we will continue to support OS/2, as well as any other operating platform
supporting Java, such as Unix, Windows NT, Linux,
Macintosh, etc."
The user group will now be divided into three separate committees with
a different Java theme:
* Programming Committee - will discuss techniques and tools used for the development
of Java programs.
* Applications Committee - will review Java based programs, particularly packaged
software.
* Operating Systems Committee - to discuss developments of operating systems
that enable Java.
The committees will meet in parallel sessions before holding a general meeting
for the whole user group which will continue to meet at IBM's
LakePointe One Building in Tampa on the first Wednesday of the month except when
it conflicts with a major holiday. The next couple of meetings will be held January
13th and February 3rd; the group is planning on initially offering free instruction
in Java to the public in order to generate awareness of the user group.
TBJUG is governed by an Executive Board presided over by Al Stephan of BBF Printing
in Largo (genman@bbfprinting.com).
TBOUG was originally founded in December 1993 as a not-for-profit, vendor-independent
group supporting users in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. For more information, the
group can be contacted at:
