Java is "a simple, object oriented, distributed, interpreted, robust, secure, architecture-neutral, portable, high performance, multithreaded, dynamic language." HotJava is a WWW browser that can execute Java applets in HTML pages. HotJava is distributed with the complete Java Language API documented in hypertext, and with a tutorial called Writing and Using HotJava Applets. Users can create their own classes by subclassing from the public API class library. Full-fledged Java applications (but not applets) can link arbitrary C code. . [Java FAQ. Chuck Morefield , 10/4/95.]

Is garbage collection inefficient? The technology continues to improve, but several years ago the typical speed penalty was under 5%-15%. One study of C++ with and without garbage collection showed no important mean difference, although re-coded applications might slow down or speed up by 20%. The real speed penalty is for interpreted languages (usually), but a good interpreter can often get within a factor of two of a compiler. [Peter Ludemann , comp.lang.lisp, 10/12/95.] (Peter says the Java team recently hired some experienced GC/interpreter programmers, so performance may improve.)

Gamelan is a clearing house for Java applets. 250 animations are on file, including a 3-D Tetris. All of the resources will work with the new Netscape 2.0 browser. , from . [Richard Killion , 10/20/95. Bill Park.]

Nick Nafpliotis is setting up a free WWW magazine for Java programmers -- esp. beginning programmers. Contributions and help are solicited. See . [, comp.lang.java, 10/6/95.] (Nafpliotis also publishes "The Delphi Connection," , for Borland Delphi developers.)