Java Reference
In-Depth Information
class.
5
It also appears that IBM's class may become the official Sun version in
Java 5.0 when it comes out. The primary feature of this class is its ability to
deal correctly with rounding and precision, which is of great benefit in financial
and scientific applications. Check out IBM's documentation and see if this is
something you should use.
Note that Java bytecodes are Java bytecodes. You can download and use
the IBM class with the Sun Java Runtime. It is there if you need it.
6.4
W
HAT
A
RE
A
LL
T
HESE
“_
G
”V
ERSIONS
?
One thing you will notice right away when you unpack the IBM Java SDK is
that it has virtually all of the same commands as does the Sun Java SDK, but
there is a whole bunch of them duplicated with a mysterious “_g” suffix. What's
up with that?
These versions run a Java VM that was compiled with debug information,
so that you can report information about bugs and errors that is of use to IBM
SDK developers in locating and fixing problems. These versions should not be
used for production work, but only to recreate and report bugs.
6.5
R
EVIEW
Well, we told you this one would be short. With a handful of minor exceptions,
the IBM Java SDK is a complete drop-in replacement for the Sun Java SDK.
You could go back to the previous chapter and repeat every example and exer-
cise with the IBM Java SDK, and you would get the same results. There is
definitely some comfort in knowing that even though you don't have an Open
Source Java VM and SDK, at least you have two vendors the produce function-
ally identical development environments. You are not trapped into a single
vendor's offering.
5.
http://www2.hursley.ibm.com/decimalj/decfaq.html
