Java Cookbook

Platform Notes

In its short history, Java has gone through four major versions. The first official release is known as Java JDK 1.0, and its last bug-fixed version is 1.0.2. The second major release is Java JDK 1.1, and the latest bug-fixed version is 1.1.9, though it may be up from that by the time you read this book. The third major release, in December 1998, was to be known as Java JDK 1.2, but the Sun marketing gremlins abruptly renamed JDK 1.2 at the time of its release to Java 2, and the implementation is known as Java SDK 1.2. The current version as of this writing is Java 2 SDK 1.3 (JDK 1.3), which was released in 2000. Around the same time, two other packages, one low-end and one high-end, were announced. At the low end, Java Micro Edition (JME) is designed for tiny devices, such as Palm computers, telephones, and the like. At the high end, the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) extends Java 2 by adding additional features for enterprise or large-scale distributed commercial applications. One of the key features of the Enterprise Edition is Enterprise JavaBeans™ (EJB). EJB has little in common with client-side JavaBeans except the name. Many Java pundits (including myself) believe that EJB will become a significant player in the development of large commercial applications, perhaps the most significant development of this era.

As we go to press, Java 2 Version 1.4 is about to appear. It entered beta (which Sun calls “early access”) around the time of the book’s completion, ...