JAVA IN GEAR
Cassandra Hawkins · 1996
Java is about to flow across much of the nation's railroads. Later this year, transportation giant CSX Corporation will roll out TWSNet, a shipment tracking and processing application that uses World Wide Web technology to give CSX customers Web browser access to CSX's customer applications. TWSNet, originally a DOS-based application, has become one of the first - and arguably the largest - mission-critical applications written in Java, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s object-oriented, platform-independent programming language. CSX, the nation's largest freight transporter, is one of a handful of large companies in different industries that are deploying Java-based applications for systems that connect with their customers over the Internet. CSX says using Java to build a major shipping application saved the company development time and millions of dollars.