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To summarise your point | 237 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
This is where the APIs come in
Authored by: jbb on Saturday, April 21 2012 @ 05:44 AM EDT
As long as the targeted device supports a VM implemented to the same spec across devices, the code will run (the actual detailed code that forms the VM will vary across platforms, as it interacts with the specifics of the platform and hides the details of the underlying platform and device - it's like a compatibility layer, or common denominator)
This is not entirely true. The design of Java was rather clever. To slightly oversimplify things: they tried to keep the VM as simple and hardware/OS independent as possible so they moved as much of the hardware/OS dependent code into the core APIs. This is one reason why the core APIs are essential to Java in a way that the core Perl modules are not essential to Perl.

This is a clever design strategy. It is also why people are required to run the TCK (Technology Compatibility Kit) on their core APIs in order to call their implementation "Java". How can the compatibility of the core APIs be essential for calling something Java while at the same time be extraneous from Java? The job the TCK performs gives a clear and unambiguous definition of what Oracle means by the word "Java" despite what they might say on the witness stand.

---
Our job is to remind ourselves that there are more contexts than the one we’re in now — the one that we think is reality.
-- Alan Kay

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

What's important in an API
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, April 21 2012 @ 06:00 AM EDT
> Nothing about the API or language specs is really related to cross platform
compatibility

Let's give Sun some credit. Some of the MS.NET APIs are just
lazy wrappers
around Win32 C libraries. On the other hand, Java always seems to
want to 'do
the right thing'.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

To summarise your point
Authored by: Ian Al on Saturday, April 21 2012 @ 12:41 PM EDT
Any features related to WORA in the Java API Specification are functional and
not copyright protectable creative expression fixed in the Specification medium.

---
Regards
Ian Al
Software Patents: It's the disclosed functions in the patent, stupid!

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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