On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 12:58 AM, Justin Findlay <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On AD 2008 April 23 Wednesday 11:27:37 PM -0600, Bryan Sant wrote: > > The solution is the "Consumer JRE": > > * Quickstarter. Radically reduce the startup time for Java > > applications and applets. > > * Java Kernel. Reduce the time to install and launch when the user > > needs to install the JRE in order to run an application. > > * Deployment toolkit. Enable easy detection and installation of the > JRE. > > * Installer improvements. Improve the user experience of installation. > > * Graphics performance on Microsoft Windows. Enable default > > graphics acceleration for simple and advanced 2D rendering. (Linux is > > already using an OpenGL accelerated graphics pipeline for 2D > > rendering). > > * Nimbus look and feel. Release a new cross-platform look and feel > > based on Synth. > > This sounds quite good. My main complaint against java is that there's > so many different names, concurrent but apparently conflicting version > number schemes, environments, specializations, and aftermarket rebundles > that it's hard to know what to think when someone says 'java' or when > they want you to 'install java'. Is that indicative of fragmentation or > am I just a little naive?
Sun sucks at versioning. Here's the breakdown: Java 1.0 = Java Java 1.1 = Java Java 1.2 = Java2 1.2 (WTF? Java 2 on a 1.x version? Yup.) Java 1.3 = Java2 1.3 Java 1.4 = Java2 1.4 Java 1.5 = Java 5 Java 6 = Java 6 Java 7 = Java 7 When Java 1.2 was released, it included some fancy new libraries and a primitive JIT compiler so Sun wanted people to know that 1.2 was much better than previous releases, so they called it "Java 2 version 1.2" -- even though its version starts with a 1.x. This is a common pattern with Sun -- Solaris 8 is actually SunOS 5.8 for example. Why? Because Sun has a retarded marketing department (or do they have one at all?)... Or even common sense. Java 1.3 was release and called... Java 3 right? Wrong! Java 1.3 is called "Java 2 version 1.3". Same thing for Java 1.4, "Java 2 version 1.4". Many people complained about how stupid this versioning scheme was, so they fixed it... Kinda half way with Java 5 and then totally with Java 6 and beyond. When talking about "Java" there is the: JVM (Java Virtual Machine) -- the actual java command that interprets or compiles bytecode into native code and runs it JRE (Java Runtime Environment) = JVM + standard libraries and stuff JDK (Java Development Kit) = JRE + compiler, de-compiler, monitoring tools, source code, demos and stuff The JRE is what end-users install on their system so they can run Java apps and view Java applets in their browser. When someone says, "I have 'Java' installed on my computer.", or a program, "Requires Java". They're talking about the JRE. Java has many standard libraries and features. These features are bundled into three main categories. Java Standard Edition (Java SE) Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE -- formerly known as J2EE) Java Micro Edition (Java ME -- formerly known as J2ME) If you don't designate that you're talking about EE or ME, then you assume you're talking about SE. Java EE requires Java SE but has many extra features that specifically target the web and back-end server market. Java ME is a stripped down version of Java SE created for embedded devices (such as cell phones). Java SE, EE, and ME are versioned independently. So you may have Java 6 installed and you're running the Glassfish app server (which is an open source Java EE 5 implementation). 90% of all Java programs only need Java SE. I hope this helps clear things up :-). -Bryan /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
