Java Then and Now - Java - page 983

Appendix A. Java Then and Now
Introduction: Always in Motion the Java Is
Java has always been a moving target for developers and writers. Some developers I meet in
my commercial training programs are still not aware of some of the features of ancient Java
releases, let alone Java 6 or 7. This appendix offers a look at each of the major releases of
Java. For a review of the early history, see Jon Byous's Sun Microsystems article “Java Tech-
nology: An Early History” (1998) . You can also find a copy at the Paderborn University
website .
Java Preview: HotJava
The first time that the world at large heard of Java was the May 1995 release of HotJava , a
web browser written entirely in Java and introducing the Java applet for dynamic web con-
tent. The download included the first Java compiler, aimed primarily at writing applets, and
the source code for much of the system. That year's SunWorld conference helped escalate
this release into the public eye, with the dramatic last-minute announcement by Marc
Andreessen of Netscape that Java had been licensed and would be incorporated into all Nets-
cape browsers.
Java Arrives: 1.0
Early in 1996, Java 1.0 was “officially” released, with its API featuring the basic structure
that has underpinned all the Javas that have appeared ever since ( java.lang , java.io ,
java.util , and so on).
What Was New in Java 1.1
The first major revision, 1.1, was released in February 1997. It featured the new Readers/
Writers classes for reading/writing text in any of the Unicode subsets or “character sets,”