One of the revolutionary aspects is that the code is in Java. The use of Java on the front end of the prototype is in line with what the designers of Java had in mind. The use of it in the back end application, however, is something outside the norm. Dr. Hickey's team has found that while there is some loss of performance, because Java is an interpreted language that takes more computer resources to execute than normal compiled languages, the gain in transportability across hardware platforms more than makes up the difference. The team has a working prototype that can handle all 37 million records in WorldCat on two Microsoft NT servers with a reasonable user load.
Work continues on ways to improve the performance.
OCLC SiteSearch Software Taylor Surface, manager, OCLC Distributed Systems, described OCLC SiteSearch software version 4.0. The next release of OCLC SiteSearch will be written in the Java programming language. There are many benefits, such as hardware independence, that make the effort to rewrite the OCLC SiteSearch code in Java worthwhile. Mr. Surface demonstrated the prototype OCLC SiteSearch 4.0 software. The move to Java is an example of how research and prototyping in the Office of Research can speed up and improve the development cycle of OCLC products.