Network programming and CSE

A remarkable feature of scientific computing has been its relatively strong reuse of software, and therefore its concern with portability. Some things could still be improved, such as language support for the IEEE floating point. This common environment has made possible the extensive catalogs of reusable components in Netlib, Numerical Recipes, NAG, IMSL, and so on. Achieving a similar portability in the rest of scientific computing remains a challenge. Graphics, interprocess communication, network naming rules, and database interfaces are all in flux. The computing world is changing rapidly and unpredictably. At the moment the most promising development is the birth of systems like Java and Inferno that extend the scope of portable programming to include graphical user interfaces, simple visualization, and network services. The article expands on the various uses of Java and similar networking languages.