The Java programming language emerged roughly 25 years ago, when Smalltalk and C++ dominated. Back then it was easy to argue that the world didn't need another object-oriented programming language.

Despite advances in cloud computing, mobile development, and AI, the day-to-day business of enterprises around the world still runs on three programming languages that made their debut in the 1990s.

Sun Microsystems officials introduced last week upgrades to three Java-based technologies, including the company’s latest implementation of enterprise Java. But they were silent on the elephant in the ...