I'm an advocate of using Java. I use Java and IDL in the instrument data processing pipelines I create. I've seen Java used more and more over the recent years in astronomical image processing and pipelines. The European Space Agency has a number of interesting projects in development primarily using Java. It's also interesting that Java is being used in realtime instrument control systems in astronomy. I've learned of this in several international projects. The big ATST solar telescope project is advocating its use. Here's an older paper on using XML and Java in this context. ==Leonard