Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Is JDK 7 Java?

I wonder if the JCP rules allow JDK 7 to be called "Java"? Sun appears to think so since the JDK 7 page is entitled "jdk7: Java SE 7". Apache Harmony meanwhile will presumably avoid calling itself "Java" until it can obtain and pass the JCK. Does this make Harmony the true guardian of Java? ;-)

4 comments:

Neil Bartlett said...

Sun is the owner of the Java trademark. They license it to other vendors to use under the terms of the JCP, but as owners they can use it however they like. That includes slapping it on things that have no relation to Java at all, like the Sun Java Desktop System!

Glyn said...

Yes, I suppose Sun's ownership of the trademark trumps any JCP rules, but it still seems dodgy to describe JDK 7 as "Java SE 7" when there is no platform JSR or JCK for Java 7.

Alex Buckley said...

The JDK7 project at java.net is Sun's Reference Implementation of the putative Java SE 7 Platform Specification. The build engineers are just following precedent in assuming the eventual existence of a Java SE Platform Specification.

Blogs from build engineers always refer to JDK or OpenJDK, not Java SE.

Note that OpenJDK's JDK7 project, from which java.net's JDK7 project is derived, does not to call itself "Java". It's "an open-source implementation of the next major revision of the Java SE Platform."

Glyn said...

Thanks Alex. Maybe Sun should add the word "putative" to the JDK 7 web page title. ;-)

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