Oak (programming language)
Oak was a programming language created by James Gosling in 1991, initially for Sun Microsystems set-top box project. The language later evolved to become Java.
The name Oak was used by Gosling after an oak tree that stood outside his office.
History
Template:Seealso In 1991, Sun Microsystems was attempting to develop a new technology for programming next generation smart appliances, which Sun expected to be a major new opportunity.
The team originally considered using C++, but rejected the idea for several reasons (see Java history).
Initially, Gosling attempted to modify and extend C++ but soon abandoned that in favor of creating a new platform called Green and an entirely new language, which he called Oak, after the tree that stood just outside his office[1].
By the summer of 1992, they were able to demonstrate portions of the new platform including the Green OS, the Oak language, the libraries, and the hardware. Their first attempt, demonstrated on September 3, 1992, focused on building a PDA device named Star7[1] which had a graphical interface and a smart agent called "Duke" to assist the user.
Oak was renamed Java in 1994 after a trademark search revealed that Oak was used by Oak Technology[2]. Java 1.0 was finally shipped in 1996[3].
Differences with Java
Oak was the basis for what Java 1.0 became later, but there were also some differences[4][5]: Several concepts were planned in the Oak specification but remained not implemented in the original language because of time constraints:
- unsigned primitive types turned out to never be implemented in Java[6].
- The enum keyword for enumerated types was implemented in Java for Java 5.0.
- The assert keyword was also implemented in Java for Java 5.0[7]
Other concepts were different than, or improved later, for Java:
- abstract methods were defined as in C++.
- The package private access level did not exist in Oak. Classes with no access modifier were considered private.
And finally some concepts were later scraped out:
- All exceptions were unchecked.
- It was possible by the unprotect keyword to write code that would not signal asynchronous exceptions.
See also
References
- ↑ Jon Byous (April 2003). [{{Expansion depth limit exceeded||}} "Java Technology: The Early Years"]. Sun Microsystems. {{Expansion depth limit exceeded||}}. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ↑ Kieron Murphy (1996-04-10). [{{Expansion depth limit exceeded||}} "So why did they decide to call it Java?"]. javaworld.com. {{Expansion depth limit exceeded||}}. Retrieved 2009-08-03. "The lawyers had told us that we couldn't use the name 'OAK' because [it was already trademarked by] Oak Technologies," said Frank Yellin, a senior engineer at Sun. "So a brainstorming session was held to come up with ideas for a new name"
- ↑ Jonathan I. Schwartz (2007-08-30). [{{Expansion depth limit exceeded||}} "Different Isn't Always Better, But Better's Always Different"]. {{Expansion depth limit exceeded||}}. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ↑ Heinz Kabutz (2003-07-15). [{{Expansion depth limit exceeded||}} "Once Upon an Oak ..."]. artima.com. {{Expansion depth limit exceeded||}}. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ↑ [{{Expansion depth limit exceeded||}} "Oak language specification"]. Sun Microsystems. {{Expansion depth limit exceeded||}}. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ↑ [{{Expansion depth limit exceeded||}} "Java and unsigned int, unsigned short, unsigned byte, unsigned long, etc. (Or rather, the lack thereof)"]. {{Expansion depth limit exceeded||}}. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ↑ [{{Expansion depth limit exceeded||}} "A Simple Assertion Facility For the Java Programming Language"]. Sun Microsystems. {{Expansion depth limit exceeded||}}. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
External links
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