Sun numbering [LWN.net]

Sun numbering

Posted Nov 19, 2004 17:07 UTC (Fri) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054)
Parent article: Sun invites outside involvement with Java 6 (News.com)

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.

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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.