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Java's bizarre
naming schemes explained The folks who
write Java (Sun Microsystems) keeping changing their mind as to the title by
which they wish Java to be know.
Way back when, we had Java version 1.0, then
1.1, then 1.2. Simple, made sense. But release 1.2 was a pretty major release with many
new features, and the Sun folks decided that thereafter that Java would be
known as Java2. But they kept the underlying numbering scheme.
So we had J2SE (Java 2 Standard Edition) 1.2, then 1.3, and 1.4.
Java has also grown so that it is now available at a number of levels
that are related by not quite the same thing. The most common for us
mere mortals in the Standard Edition (J2SE) which runs on your basic normal
desktop/laptop computer. But there is also a version designed to run on wee
machines like cell phones, known as the Micro Edition (J2ME). There is
a suite designed to with, and on large internet servers, known
Enterprise Edition (J2EE).
To complicate things further, within J2SE,
there are two downloads you can get: the smaller Java Runtime Environment (JRE),
targeted for folks who just want to run Java programs (like Javascore), and
the much larger Software Development Kit (SDK), which is aimed at people
writing java programs (the SDK includes the JRE and much more).
Lastly, the marketing folks decided that the 1.x
naming scheme was getting boring. So with the newest release, 1.5,
they decreed that it shall be titled 5.0. Go figure.
SO,
the current, latest and greatest release of Java, Standard edition is known
as J2SE 5.0.
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