Patrick Naughton

Patrick Naughton (born in 1965) is an American software developer, best known as being one of the original creators of the Java programming language.

Career

Working for Sun

As a Sun engineer, Patrick Naughton had become increasingly frustrated with the state of Sun's C++ and C APIs (application programming interfaces) and tools. While considering moving to NeXT, Naughton was offered a chance to work on new technology and thus the Stealth Project was started.

The Stealth Project was soon renamed to the Green Project with James Gosling and Mike Sheridan joining Naughton. Together with other engineers, they began work in a small office on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. They were attempting to develop a new technology for programming next generation smart appliances, which Sun expected to be a major new opportunity.^[1][2]

In June and July 1994, after three days of brainstorming with John Gage, the Director of Science for Sun, James Gosling, Bill Joy, Naughton, Wayne Rosing, and Eric Schmidt, the team re-targeted the platform for the World Wide Web. They felt that with the advent of the first graphical web browser, Mosaic, the Internet was on its way to evolving into the same highly interactive medium that they had envisioned for cable TV. As a prototype, Naughton wrote a small browser, WebRunner, later renamed HotJava.^[3]

After Sun

In 1994, Naughton quit Sun for Starwave (then a property of Paul Allen) to develop server Java applications for high profile web sites (in times when J2EE frameworks did not exist yet).^[3] They developed ESPN.com, ABCNEWS.com, Outside Online, and Mr. Showbiz.com among other groundbreaking sites, setting the standard for much of the commercial Internet explosion of the late 1990s. He was the author of "The Java Handbook", (ISBN 0-07-882199-1, Osborne, 1995) and co-author of Java: The Complete Reference, with Herbert Schildt (ISBN 0-07-882231-9, Osborne, 1996)

In 1998, Walt Disney Internet Group acquired Starwave and amalgamated it with Infoseek in the Go Network company. As a result, Naughton became executive vice president of Infoseek.

After his arrest in 1999, Naughton was fired from Infoseek.^[4]

In 2004, he joined Azaleos as an engineer leaving in 2009 to become the Chief technology officer of L1 Partners

In 2010, he rejoined Azaleos as Vice President of Engineering.

1999 Arrest

Patrick Naughton was arrested by the FBI on 16 September 1999 and was prosecuted for traveling in interstate commerce with the intent to have sex with a minor, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §2423(b).^[4][5][6] After the trial ended in a hung jury, the government moved for a new trial, then struck a plea agreement where he took a reduced sentence, serving no prison time, in exchange for working for the FBI for free for a year.^[7][8] His line of defense was that he claimed he was persuaded to participate online in a ritualized sexual role-playing exercise, dealing with a mature woman acting as a girl.^[8]

See also

• History of Java
• Online identity

References