Java 1.5.0 Now Officially Java 5.0 534
Quantum Jim writes "In a move which out-does Netscape's one-version number skip and Winamp's two-numbers skip, Sun has announced that the upcoming Java2 release will be marketed as version 5.0, skipping three-and-a-half numbers. Can version 6.022E23 be far behind? Thanks to David Flanagan for the heads-up."
Whoa (Score:2, Insightful)
Although Microsoft did go from Windows NT 4 to Windows 2000, that wasn't really a version jump (Windows 2000 = Windows NT 5) but a change of branding.
Anyone know even greater version inflations?
Good to know... (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously though -- I love Java, but Sun needs to pull its head out of its ass before C#, PHP, and Python relegate Java to the scrap heap.
Versioning is a joke (Score:3, Insightful)
None is consistent, there is no 'standard' and its ( as is apparent by the story, and many in the past ) all arbitrary...
Thank Godness (Score:1, Insightful)
Realistically, I'd call it 3.0 (Score:3, Insightful)
this is why "java 2" was such a dumb idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Versioning is a joke (Score:1, Insightful)
Embarrassing and Harmful (Score:4, Insightful)
Managers don't understand the details - they don't bother to learn that 5.0 is really 1.5, and they make decisions based on their high level views.
Sun has hurt Java's name, and let its developers down, with this absurd naming move, a repeat of the shambolic schizophrenic 1.2/2.0 business years ago.
So now we have Java 2 Version 5????? Employers will want to know why developers haven't done any version 3 and version 4. And it will certainly confuse the crap out of them.
Java has a good name for professionalism, but whoever came up with this ought to hang their head in shame.
*sigh* I hate marketing (Score:5, Insightful)
Jesus. Just give me a version number so I can track what it's compatible with, and what features it has. If you're bumping up your version number for a product, bump them for all related ones as well, in the same increment. Don't make me try to figure out what version number of the language is supported by which version number of the developer's kit for god's sake. Is it so damn hard?
I thought marketing was suppose to create clarity in the minds of the potential customer. Screwing around with numbering schemes isn't the way to do that. I don't care what your internal taxonomies are. Just label the thing, and stick with it.
I also take it that Sun's marketing/engineering is stealing their "internal" project naming protocols from Apple?
Re:Other Famous Version Number Skips (Score:2, Insightful)
Par for the course with Sun (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Winamp didn't skip version 4 (Score:4, Insightful)
Java numbering... (Score:4, Insightful)
After all, we are all talking about vintages aren't we?
More seriously, Sun should just drop the Java 2/5 numbering and just use the year that is launched as the "brand"... and keep a "internal" version number for identification purposes...
That would keep the market droids happy and the programmers would have both an inteligent numbering and a discreet numbering to work with...
What world do YOU live in? (Score:5, Insightful)
java -version (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Where does the 2 come into this? (Score:3, Insightful)
Then why not Java 2.0? Why Java 2 1.2? I ask because I've been confused by this before, though got it worked out.
Re:Where does the 2 come into this? (Score:5, Insightful)
If anyone has contact with the people who came up with the Java versioning scheme, please ask them what they are smoking and where I can get some.
Re:Other Famous Version Number Skips (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't you see the pattern? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Winamp didn't skip version 4 (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:*sigh* I hate marketing (Score:3, Insightful)
Amen brother. Tell it like it is. How does Sun expect to compete with .Net if they can't even stop confusing everybody over the version numbers. They're just version numbers for crying out loud. Bring them in line ... just make them both higher than they were before, but the same number.
Re:Strongly Typed Container Classes (Score:4, Insightful)
Once the greater majority of libraries have been rewritten to fully utilise genericity, it would be time to think about integrating generics into the VM.
Re:this is why "java 2" was such a dumb idea (Score:3, Insightful)
seriously though, it seems like sun should just pull an emacs, drop the "1.", and use the minor version number as THE version number from now on. Then the ordering would become sane; we'd have java5 now, java6 next, java7 later on, etc.
Java vs. JDK (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Other Famous Version Number Skips (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, there was also a Word 6 for DOS (the final one, I believe), and also Word 6 for Mac. I think the motive was more to do with WordPerfect being at 5.1. Obviously 6 must be better than 5.1. Same as the leapfrogging version numberss that Netscape and IE did for a while.
Re:Good to know... (Score:3, Insightful)
Same purposes:
GUI development: C#/.NET (Windows), C#/Gtk# (Linux), Python/Gtk (Linux), Python/wxWindows (cross-platform)
Server Side: ASP.NET (Windows, Linux), PHP, Python, Perl
Cross Platform: C++/wxWindows, C++/Qt, Python/wxWindows
ASP.NET is the biggest threat to Java: that's where server-side development is moving on Windows (Windows developers don't care about "proprietary"); Mono's
Why should they? Python hasn't relegated Perl or C to the scrap heap, neither has PHP.
Perl has relegated awk to the scrap heap. And Python has pretty much killed Perl's aspiration in several areas (GUI development, Matlab replacement, etc.). PHP is probably far more common than Perl for server-side development now. And all of them have taken away a lot of "market share" from C.
Languages don't usually die, but they can become less and less relevant. And that can even happen pretty quickly.
Re:deeper problem (Score:4, Insightful)
The only difference I can see between Java and C++ is that there isn't a separate international entity that defines the standard. Sun, along with members of the Java Community Process, is in control of Java standards.
Re:Other Famous Version Number Skips (Score:2, Insightful)
Why not? It uses the same scheme, only the series converges to e, not pi.
Re:Strongly Typed Container Classes (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, that makes part of the power of templates: They have all the good parts of macros, while avoiding most of their problems. The other part of their power comes from the fact that they are indeed more tham macros (and mode than Java/C# generics either): You can specialize them either completely or partially, allowing e.g. more efficient algorithms for special cases. Indeed, they are turing complete, which effectively means that you can make arbitrary complex decisions at compile time.
Of course this also gives the danger of overdoing it and producing incomprehensible code for little benefit, but then that danger is IMHO not really different from the same danger for pure runtime optimizations (if (special_case) { cryptic_code(); } else { slightly_less_cryptic_code(); }).
Re:*sigh* I hate marketing (Score:3, Insightful)
Aaawww... they're so cute when they're all innocent and naive like that. (^_^)
Marketing is the reason I can buy two different brands of low-cal Pepsi (Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max(*)); any differences are relatively minor, but Pepsi Max allows men to buy the stuff without being seen drinking a "girl on a diet" drink.
Marketing is meant to sell stuff. Whether Sun will actually do this with their fscked-up numbering is beyond me. Personally, the whole "Java 2" business confused me to hell; this is worse.
(*) Known as Pepsi One in the US, I believe.
Re:Strongly Typed Container Classes (Score:3, Insightful)
int i = ((Number) container.get(indx));