"Bonjour, comment Java?"

Java is turning 10 this year... I was told that before being made public, the project was killed several times. Maybe due to lack of product requirement documents, or non-existing VOC (voice of customer), but anyway, Java was not a death march project and millions of users and developers can now enjoy its benefits. A nice Java timeline document, describes the chronology of events in the history of Java.

It's good to see there is some internet memory under http://sunsite.nus.edu.sg/java/... Imagine, you can still download the JDK 1.1.6 for Windows 95/NT4.0 - 8,230,260 bytes. What a good deal...

Another historical landmark is the Java Workshop (downloadable from the site above), the ancestor of all the Java IDEs written in Java (no need for extra binary DLLs or the like), or the priceless Java Language tutorial for 1.0 JDK.

Do you remember bug 1212188?
Bug ID: 1212188
Synopsis: System.out.println(new Date()) gives different results on DOS and UNIX
Category: java:classes_java
Reported Against:1.0alpha3
UNIX results: Tue Jun 27 13:34:37 PDT 1995
DOS results: Tue Jun 27 13:34:37 1995
Note that DOS does not print the time zone.

Already our Java engineers were obsessed by cross-platform portability, even working during regular lunch time (1:34 PM), on multi systems, clock synchronized to produce similar output, precise at the second.

I wish I could download (and install and build and run), all the software ever created, including their source code repository and build instructions...I wish I could read all those funky comments in source code or check in notices, that our lawyers force us to remove before we move existing close source code to open source repositories. Maybe one day this will be available from the Computer History Museum? Too bad my garage is too small, but I still keep  unopened boxes of "Java Studio, and "Java Workshop" both 1997 vintage. "Ripe and supple with spicy vanilla aromas and moderate tannins, it is the perfect accompaniment to grilled developers and program managers..." No way I will open them. I'd better open a Chateau Meyney instead for my diner:-). As opposed to wine, software does not turn better without new releases...
If you want to share your good memories, post a comment...

Ludo