On Tue, 10 Nov 1998, Mark H. Wilkinson wrote:
> > Could someone explain the differences between a reference implementation and
> > a production.
>
> I suspect that the reference and production JDK releases from Sun are
> pretty closely related because the JDK reference implementation _is_
> actually pretty high quality in most areas. When a new JDK 1.1 reference
> release is posted the Solaris production release is typically pretty
> close behind, presumably because the reference->production patches don't
> change much between minor releases.
I will speculate here:
Buggy code doesn't demonstrate well how things should work: if the spec
says "This class works this way" and the reference implementation doesn't
do it reliably, it's not a lot of good as a reference.
Clearly Sun needs to get the reference implementation out the door AND Sun
doesn't want to be sued if it breaks, So, they say, "Don't bet your
business on this - it could fail."
If the reference implementation IS of good quality, it makes porting
(including the work done by the Solaris folk) easier and so promotes the
use of java.
When java comes from the Solaris people (or from IBM for OS/2 etc and so
forth) it's going to be used by people who ARE betting their business on it
and the quality perception is different.
Cheers
John Summerfield
http://os2.ami.com.au/os2/ for OS/2 support.
Configuration, networking, combined IBM ftpsites index.
