| I wholeheartedly agree with the response directly above. The ironic thing is
that Google tried very hard to keep their version of Java as compatible as
possible with Oracle's version. This is exactly what Oracle is suing about.
Oracle is saying that Google should have made up a new set of incompatible APIs.
If Google had done that then what you complain about would have been true.
I've taught Java for a number of years. The language itself is very
simple. The tricky part is remembering all the APIs you need to use. As long
as the core APIs stay the same (where they overlap) then switching between
Android and Sun Java is a breeze. For example, if you change from working on
Android to working on server-side programming, some of the APIs you use will be
different. This is natural because the things you work with will be different.
Servers usually have no touch screens or motion sensors. As long as the core
APIs don't change, you will be fine.
This is exactly the point the OP
was making. Google made their version as compatible as possible so programmers
could easily switch back and forth between Oracle-Java and Android-Java.
Oracle, in its infinite wisdom is trying to break this compatibility or at the
very least get Google to pay a hefty sum for the sin of being a good upstanding
member of the Java Community Sun welcomed them to.
If Google had made
incompatible core APIs, Sun would have been outraged and they would have had a
legitimate complaint that Google was fracturing the Java community for no good
reason. Google did the right thing back then and now they are getting sued for
it.
---
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 | # ]
| 
