Java Compatibility Kit and IE 4.0 test results to go to independent body
San Mateo (10/17/97) — A large measure of the legal battle between Sun Microsystems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. will be determined by independent verification of Sun’s Java-compatibility tests, a key part of the Java-licensing contract between the two giants.
To help resolve this issue, Sun plans to release its Java Compatibility Kit (JCK) and its test results of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) 4.0 to an independent body for verification as part of the litigation process, according to John Loiacono, JavaSoft’s director of marketing strategy and branding.
The Java contract between Microsoft and Sun, which was published last week, calls for licensees to pass roughly 8,000 JDK 1.1 conformance tests before qualifying for Java branding.
Sun and Microsoft have reported conflicting results in their separate tests of IE 4.0.
Despite its pledge to finally publish the JDK test suite, Sun has yet to decide which independent standards body it will appoint to administer the tests. But analysts are welcoming the effort to clear up the dispute.
“I hope that JavaSoft makes the test results public so that we are not relying on Sun’s or Microsoft’s conflicting statements,” said Eric Brown, an analyst at Forrester Research, in Boston, MA.
The core issue between the two companies is Microsoft’s inclusion of 109 methods and fields in public Java classes, including items such as the Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT), and the Lang and Util libraries, said Carla Schroer, engineering manager at Sun’s Java-testing division.
“This means that, were you to build an applet or application in Java using these public Java classes with Microsoft’s SDK [Software Development Kit], it would only run on Internet Explorer 4.0,” Schroer said.
Microsoft also decided to omit both Remote Method Invocation (RMI) software and the Java Native Interfaces (JNI).
RMI enables Java applications to communicate over a lightweight protocol; JNI allows Java applications to link directly to Windows. Both are strategic technologies for Sun as a way to integrate Java applications into Windows operating systems.
Microsoft officials, however, insist the company has fulfilled its Java compatibility requirements, and one official said making the tests’ results public will bear that out.
Although JavaSoft officials said IBM, Borland International, Symantec, and SunSoft all have passed the roughly 8,000 JDK 1.1 conformance tests required for branding, officials at some of those companies contradicted that assertion, noting that they were working with JavaSoft to correct some minor incompatibilities.
JavaSoft, a division of Sun Microsystems Inc., in Mountain View, CA, can be reached by phone at +1 (408) 343-1400 or on the Web at https://www.javasoft.com.
