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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Tue Nov 24, 1998 4:07 pm Subject: Re: Java and other things ... | ||||||||||||
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On Mon, 23 Nov 1998, Stuart Thiessen wrote: >As some people may or may not know, Sun and Microsoft have >had a lawsuit over the Java language and recently Microsoft had a >temporary injunction against it to remove its changes to the Java >language (which Sun designed). I was wondering how this affected >the programming of SignWriter 5.0. >Stuart Thiessen >Omaha, Nebraska __________________________________________________ November 24, 1998 Thank you for this message, Stuart. Excellent points. First, in regards to Microsoft, Bill Gates and the Java programming language... For the benefit of new List members, let me give a brief background. We have a computer program called SignWriter, and right now SignWriter 4.3 is in MS-DOS. We are developing a new version, SignWriter 5.0, written in the Java programming language, which will make it possible to have a "cross-platform" program. SignWriter 5.0 will be for Windows, the Macintosh, Unix and other computers. The reason we chose to use the Java programming language is because Java is the only language that is generally "universal" to all computers. So it is very important to SignWriter, and to hundreds of other programs, that the Java programming language remains "universal". If the "universal" nature of Java gets destroyed, then hundreds of computer programs will be unusable. So when I heard that Bill Gates and Microsoft decided to "fiddle with" Java, to force everyone to be dependent on them, I was depressed. Monopolies are dangerous, in my opinion, and this is an example of why. I am dependent right now on programmers who are donating their time, and if Microsoft makes it harder for them to complete SignWriter 5.0, it will effect us all. But the courts ruled in the world's favor last week! Here is an excerpt from a message I received from one of our programmers: >Val- >Glad to hear things are progressing Java-wise. Did you hear about the >recent court ruling about Java? It is actually significant for your Java >efforts. A court ruled that in 90 days Microsoft must change Windows 98 to >fully conform to the Java standard or else they will have to stop shipping >it! A big victory for Sun and for Java programmers everywhere. Microsoft >had paid to put Java on Windows, but then started fiddling around with it >to make it less portable (so it wouldn't compete with proprietary Microsoft >languages). So, Stuart, in regards to this issue, we are very fortunate. I guess the only concern is, if Microsoft doesn't obey the court order...but I think we should be optomistic :-) No matter what, no matter how slow we may be, sooner or later we will have SignWriter 5.0! I will answer your other points as soon as possible - Have a great day everyone! Valerie :-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Valerie Sutton at the DAC Deaf Action Committee for SW SignWriting https://www.SignWriting.org Center For Sutton Movement Writing an educational nonprofit organization Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | ||||||||||||
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