I am still listening a few episodes back and the Posse asked about people on old java versions. I couldn't find a thread (browsed back 5 or 6 pages... I'm sure there is one somewhere) so thought I'd just mention some of my experiences.
A couple years ago I was working for Aglient on a digital spectrum analyzer (looks a lot like an o-scope). It's OS was an old version of redhat, and it ran Java 1.0.3. Everything on the "Tube" was drawn with AWT (including the waveform). I believe the holdup was that it was using a cheap CPU (I want to say ARM) and they didn't have any other VM that would run on it. They even back-ported swing to run on it, found it to be too slow and undid it--speed was always an issue. Right now I'm working on Cable boxes. There is a standard called OCAP (Open Cable Application Platform) that specifies that Java will be used to write programs that run on your cable box. (Since you can google OCAP, I don't think I'm letting out any secrets.) Sun is involved, and I believe they forced the standard up into 1.3 or 1.4, before that I think it was sub-1.1. I say "I think" because many of the older boxes won't run a full ocap stack and so there is a process to code a 1.0.x java stack to be able to meet as many ocap standards as possible so that it will be able to run some of the apps. (and of course that's the part I'm working on) In other words, there is a good chance that a pre-1.5 JVM will be running in YOUR house soon (or already is, this is already deployed in many boxes). I would also guess just from this fact that the total number of Java 5.0 (1.5) systems deployed would have trouble matching the number of pre-1.5 deployments. Not only is pre 1.5 still in use, but depending on the type of work you do there is a chance that YOU may be one of the pre 1.5 users in the future. Oh, also. A few years ago I worked for a company that made network management platforms--they had a custom application stack (made from off the shelf components and a lot of their own middle-ware). I understand they sold something to Dell, and at one point all(?) Dell servers were shipping with this platform as part of the base system. They were 1.4.x last time I checked, and were stuck for some reason (I believe it was an outdated J2EE server they couldn't easily replace). I am not that unique, the only difference I can see is that I have generally worked for large companies that are hardware manufacturers-- It's not that the stuff is always embedded, Most of my work has been applications-- I think it's that they tend to be a little more careful about upgrading and more likely to stick with something that works. Although I've done internal development in the latest java version, I've yet (in 10+ years of Java work) to use 1.5+ on anything that was expected to be released/shipped. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
