Predictions for 2005 and Cornerstone

These are not my predications. I read Manageability's predications with the following comments.

4. Javascript will regain dominance in the space of Rich Internet Applications (RIA). XMLHTTPRequest based applications will explode as well as Flash actionsript based applications.

I completely agree on the JavaScript (DHTML) based Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). This is the Rich Thin Client approach Cornerstone advocates (a demo is in the works). As for Flex and similar technologies, I think they will grow also but with limited success compared to the former (just look at how far Applet has gone).

5. Java developers will continue to abandon EJB as the standard way of building Java based server applications. Lightweight frameworks like Spring will continue to take marketshare. Aspect Oriented Oriented programming will make steady progress however will not yet gain mainstream acceptance. IBM will gain more marketshare at the expense of BEA in the J2EE space.

Agreed. The point is less about EJB itself than simplification of developer's life, which is a major goal of Cornestone and a feature.

6. Semantic XHTML will continue to gain mind share as the best way to encode semantic information. XMLSchema will decline in usage. RDF encoding will be simplified such that it would be indistinguishable from Semantic XHTML.

When I first saw XML Schema 1.0 spec in 2001, the first thought was, How can anyone use a spec this thick? I definitely agree the pendulum is swinging back to the simplicity side these days. In fact, how many successful complicated standards have we had in the past? Remember X.500 vs SMTP?

10. Scripting languages will become dominant in addressing the needs of situated software. Speed of implementation will be the game and sloppiness will be the by product. Prototype based inheritance will be favored over static inheritance. The distinction between configuration, specification and instance will be completely blurred. Finally, documentation can be discovered only be reading the source code.

Yes! It's all about developer productivity. Now that we have a vast library (Java and other languages, web services, etc.) to draw from, it's only natural that we make the gluing process as easy as possible. That's why we are working on the invocation composition / orchestration layer of Cornerstone to make it easily scriptable.