J.C. Penney's Dave Evans had the ear of retailers and technology providers alike as he unveiled application programming interface (API) standards for Java-based POS applications. The announcement came at the National Retail Federation's (NRF) annual convention in New York City last month. Standard APIs would allow a retailer to run a single Java application on a variety of hardware without rewriting code. Backers of the initiative say it's essential if Java is to be adopted by retailers with a mix of hardware in their stores—a situation retailers believe has kept many software companies and in-house applications developers from writing Java applications to date.
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