Java Platform: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:21, 1 February 2007

Revision as of 20:00, 1 February 2007

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{{Java platforms}}

The '''Java platform''' is the name for a bundle of related programs, or [[platform (computing)|platform]], from [[Sun Microsystems]] which allow for developing and running programs written in the [[Java programming language]]. The platform is not specific to any one processor or operating system, but rather, an execution engine (called a [[virtual machine]]) and a compiler with a set of standard libraries are implemented for various hardware and operatingsoperating systems so that Java programs can run identically on all of them.

Different "editions" of the platform are available, including Java Standard Edition or [[Java SE]] (formerly J2SE) for desktop machines, the Java Enterprise Edition or [[Java EE]] (formerly J2EE) for web servers, and the Java Micro Edition or [[Java ME]] (formerly J2ME) for hand-held devices such as smart phones. [[As of December 2006]], the current version of the Java Platform is specified as either 1.6.0 or 6 (both refer to the same version). Version 6 is the product version, while 1.6.0 is the developer version.

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The Java class libraries serve three purposes within the Java Platform. Like other standard code libraries, they provide the programmer a well-known set of functions to perform common tasks, such as maintaining lists of items or performing complex string parsing. In addition, the class libraries provide an abstract interface to tasks that would normally depend heavily on the hardware and operating system. Tasks such as network access and file access are often heavily dependent on the native capabilities of the platform. The Java java.net and java.io libraries implement the required native code internally, then provide a standard interface for the Java applications to perform those tasks. Finally, some underlying platforms may not support all of the features a Java application expects. In these cases, the class libraries can either emulate those features using whatever is available, or provide a consistent way to check for the presence of a specific feature.

Currently the class libraries included in the [[JRE]] are still propietaryproprietary software. There is an ongoing project of the [[Free Software Foundation]] for writtingwriting a compatible free set of libraries. It is called [[Classpath]]. On November 13, 2006, Sun announced that all of the Java source code will be released entirely under the [[GNU General Public License]], by March 2007.<ref>{{cite web

| url=http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2006-11/sunflash.20061113.1.xml

| title=Sun Open Sources Java Platform