Sun invites outside involvement with Java 6 (News.com) [LWN.net]

News.com examines Sun's open-source process for work performed on version 6.0 of the Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE). ""When we started doing API design with others in the JCP, our APIs got a lot better. We're trying to apply more of that principle to the J2SE source code itself," Hamilton said. "Having more eyes looking at it will improve the product over time." The move is the latest adjustment to Sun's long-running attempt to balance the openness of Java with the risks of letting outsiders hold sway. Sun's first Java foe was licensee Microsoft, which added Windows-specific features to Java in a way that undermined the software's primary benefit of letting the same program run on any computer."

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Sun invites outside involvement with Java 6 (News.com)

Posted Nov 18, 2004 23:26 UTC (Thu) by tomsi (subscriber, #2306) [Link]

I don't know if the openess around Java 6 will be enough to change much. I'm not sure if it is important either.

Having strong opinions on programming languages, I must say that I liked what was done with Tiger (Java 1.5 aka. Java 5), so if they can improve Java further, I will be a happy camper. I was very suspicious of Java for a long time, because of poor performance; I always liked the language part of it.
Now I see that the main performance hog is Swing, so I have a better relation with Java. I still miss some good object oriented stuff from Delphi (especially properties). Of course, C# implements it, but it is a bit close to MS for comfort.

Sun numbering

Posted Nov 19, 2004 17:07 UTC (Fri) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link]

Sun's version numbering is driving me crazy.

I wasn't really aware of Sun much back when SunOS 4.1.4 (or was it 4.1.3)
became Solaris 1.0 and Solaris 2.0 incorporated SunOS 5.0, but I was
around when Solaris 2.6 was followed by Solaris 7 (incorporating SunOS
5.7). I was constantly assuring people that the "2." was silent and
invisible.

Now they've outdone themselves with Java. (And here I should admit that
I'm no Java programmer so I haven't followed it closely.) Somehow Java
1.2 was also called Java 2, yet Java 1.3 and beyond are also Java 2. And
now we're going to get version 6.0 of Java 2?! Where did that come from?
Even better, the article begins referring to this new version as Java 6.
Yet another reason to look forward to Sun becoming even more irrelevant
than they already are.

Sun numbering

Posted Nov 19, 2004 19:08 UTC (Fri) by tomsi (subscriber, #2306) [Link]

Java 1.5 which Sun released this autumn, is apparently Java 5!

Tom

Sun numbering

Posted Nov 19, 2004 22:33 UTC (Fri) by iabervon (subscriber, #722) [Link]

The software is actually called "Java l." (short for "language"). They're now up to "Java l. 5.0". The release engineers were just misreading the memos for a while before anyone noticed the error. Also slated for 6.0 is fixing the typo in "JZSE". Look forward to downloading "jZl.sdk6.0_01-linux-iSBb.bin" in the not-too-distance future.

Sun numbering

Posted Nov 22, 2004 20:30 UTC (Mon) by jonabbey (subscriber, #2736) [Link]

A lot of Sun's nonsensical numbering scheme for Java revolved around the Microsoft Java License. Apparently, Microsoft agreed to eat anything that Sun shipped as a 1.x version, but that they did not commit to shipping anything that Sun might decide to bundle as a 2.x or later version.

Sun, always free and easy on the versioning rationality, said, 'Okay!' and released "Java 2, version 1.2", so as to have both their cake and their license with Microsoft intact.

Along about the time Java 5 came out, they decided that the Microsoft license was well and truly moot, so that's why we can all enjoy "Java 2, Version 5.0", now.

Ye gods.