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Sun could not have kept the Java APIs proprietary | 687 comments | Create New Account
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Sun could not have kept the Java APIs proprietary
Authored by: jbb on Saturday, April 28 2012 @ 06:42 PM EDT
At least that's how I see it. Maybe there is another perspective I haven't thought of.

My definition of an API is a set of signatures and definitions for those signatures. This is the exact information needed to implement the API and it is also the exact information needed to use the API in application programs. It is also the exact information needed to completely document the API. From a business perspective it was very important for Sun to keep the Java APIs totally out in the open.

Microsoft was able to keep parts of their OS APIs secret because they were in the OS API creation business (Windows) and also in the OS API usage business (Word and Office applications). This might have been related to them running into anti-trust difficulties.

Sun could have gone that route but they chose not to. They could have given themselves an edge in the Java applications business by hiding extra undocumented functionality into their JVM but they didn't. As Schwartz testified (I think), Java was supposed to be the antidote to the Microsoft monopoly. There were two key elements to make this happen. First, it was platform agnostic. At least in the beginning, any Java program was supposed to run fine on any JVM regardless of the underlying OS or hardware. Second, it was a level playing field for developers. The specs for the JVM and all the APIs were open so no one had to be afraid of being locked-in like they were with Microsoft.

Sure, technically Sun could have added hidden APIs but from a business perspective that would have been a nightmare. The main selling point of Java, the main thing that differentiated it from almost everything else at that time, was "write once, run anywhere". That would not have been possible if Sun used hidden APIs that no one else knew about. If they had done that then Sun applications which made use of the hidden APIs would only run on Sun's JVM and would fail on all other JVMs because no one else would know about the hidden APIs.

So while technically it would have been possible for Sun to include hidden APIs in Java, it would have been antithetical to the entire spirit and purpose of Java. In the same way, technically the GPL could have been a closed source license or a non-Free license but that would have violated the entire spirit and purpose of the GPL.

PS: I was assuming the JVM would be the easiest place to hide the hidden APIs. Perhaps they could have been hidden elsewhere but that wouldn't solve the problem I outlined above.

---
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

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