Java compatibility? (was Re: Not a bash, just the facts)

Daniel Carrera daniel.carrera at zmsl.com
Sun Mar 26 13:08:55 UTC 2006


Derek Broughton wrote:
> However, it's not hard to come up with 4 different versions of Java for
> linux.  Sun, Blackdown, Kaffe, gcj.  I'm not entirely sure how Blackdown
> differs from Sun these days, but Kaffe and gcj are quite different
> approaches to providing Sun Java compatibility while remaining completely
> Free.  The free versions _are_ compatible - where they have actually been
> implemented - but there are still some gaping holes in their
> implementations.

Nit-pick:

Strictly speaking Kaffe and gcj are not Java, in the same way that Mesa 
is not OpenGL. Java is a specification (like C and C++) with a 
compliance process. You can't call a compliler or vm "Java" until it 
passes the compliance test. Kaffe and gcj haven't yet.

It's like Mesa and OpenGL. Although in practise Mesa is an 
implementation of OpenGL, it only claims to be "a very similar API".

Cheers,
Daniel.
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