From the Grassy Knoll: Google Android Undermining Java ME

Dietrich Kappe, Friday, November 30, 2007 @ 10:58 am

The dudes at Java Developers Journal (JDJ, for you acronym hipsters) has always had a hard-on for conspiracies involving Microsoft and Java. "Embrace and extend" is a mantra akin to the Dalek's "Exterminate!" in their editorial corridors. Now they see a conspiracy in Google Android.

To put it bluntly, Android as it is currently defined is a fork of the Java ME platform. Android is similar to the Java ME, but it's a non-conformant implementation.  Android is not compliant with Java ME nor is it compliant with Java SE. In fact, it’s not really Java. Although it uses the Java programming language, the core APIs and the virtual machine are not consistent with the Java ME or SE platform - its a fork. This was first pointed out by Stefano Mazzocchi in his November 12th Blog entry entitled "Dalvik: how Google routed around Sun's IP-based licensing restrictions on Java ME". Stefano missed the fact that Android does not properly implement the CDC or CLDC Java ME APIs ( a minimum requirement for Java ME conformance) - but kudos to him for being the first to report on the fork. The fork has since been picked up in the blogsphere by others here, here and elsewhere.

And this is a huge threat to Java ME, according to JDJ. I think the main takeaway from the article is "it's not really Java." The reasons why folks use J2EE, J2SE and J2ME are varied and don't necessarily overlap. If J2ME goes away, that won't really affect my decisions on whether to use J2EE.

Technorati Tags: ajax, android, j2me, google, microsoft, jdj

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