I will never forget taking my first Java class at Sun Microsystems in Dallas, Texas, in May, 1998. I had heard the many promises about Java and how it would revolutionize software development, but I was skeptical and arrogant as I sat in the back of the class anxious to make life hard on the instructor.
At the time, I was programming and teaching C++, mostly Visual C++ and the Microsoft Foundation Classes. For some reason, after I learned C++, I figured that would be the last programming language I would ever need to learn. My boss, on the other hand, had different ideas, because I was slated to become a Sun Certified Java Instructor.