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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Java Source Code Available

In the course of discussion in his comments, Barry said that

I don't for example ever recall seeing the source code to the JVM or javac; like Windows its source is available (I believe) but only to specified partners, and I don't really have a problem with that, by the way.

and I realise plenty of people today don't know that the source code to Java is available for download and has been since at least 1995.

This was one of the main reasons for Java's success - individuals and university departments around the world (and indeed corporate labs like the one I worked in at the time) downloaded and ported Java and made it available for pretty much any platform. This was quite radical in its day and in my (perhaps controversial) opinion was the example that made it clear that open source would work in 1998-9. If only the guys who had retrospectively defined the term 'open source' had done it in a way that included Java...

posted at 11:05 PM (UK) | |