"If this does not impress you," Fain wrote at the time, "I can add that I had to write not more than 20 lines of code for this application - the rest was drag and drop."

At JavaOne it looks like the rest of the world will have a chance to sample this kind of simplicity. There's likely to be a pricing twist, too, with Java Studio Creator being sold on an annual subscription basis - under which $99 buys a perpetual license for the tool, plus a year's worth of product updates, upgrades, and access to premium content and Community Support Forums.

While testing it last month, Fain told an interesting anecdote that sets this new tool in context:

"I was testing Java Studio Creator (JSC) while riding on a bus to work," he wrote. "A guy who was sitting next to me and watching what I was doing said: 'It's like Visual Basic!'. Well, it's not there yet. The Early Access edition of JSC is more like a concept car - you can get in, turn it on and touch the shiny controls. But when Sun will put it on the road, I'm sure that many Java developers who are currently driving on the server-side roads will buy it."

Prophetically, Fain added: "But Sun Microsystems should move fast, because IBM has already announced the release of WebSphere Studio V5.1.2, which will also include drag and drop programming with JavaServer Faces." 

He was right - that's just what Sun is doing. IBM and Microsoft beware!