Languages and standards - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Oracle responds to Apache Java defiance

  Seemingly anxious to get the next version of the Java programming language ratified, Oracle has asked the Apache Software Foundation to reconsider its stance on the proposed Java Standard Edition 7.

• Apple joins Oracle's OpenJDK project

  Apple said Friday it would join Oracle's OpenJDK and contribute "most of the key components, tools and technology required for a Java SE 7 implementation on Mac OS X."

• Google: Third parties liable for Java infringement, not us

  Third parties, not Google, would be liable for any Java copyright violations in the Android mobile OS, according to a filing the vendor made Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

• Google denies 'line-for-line' Java copying for Android

  Google is denying Oracle's allegation that it directly copied lines of Oracle's Java code for its Android mobile OS, according to a court filing made Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

• Microsoft, Adobe proclaim their love for HTML5

  Representatives of Microsoft and Adobe on Tuesday both espoused their companies' love for HTML5 technology at the HTML5 Live conference held within a few blocks of New York's Times Square, even though the vendors offer technologies perceived as HTML5 competitors.

• Oracle moving to merge JRockit, HotSpot JVMs

  Oracle is moving forward with plans to merge its two Java virtual machines (JVMs) and to provide a single microkernel for its open source GlassFish and commercial WebLogic application servers.

• Microsoft releases F# under open source license

  Microsoft has released into full open source the code of its functional programming language, called F#.

• Zend looks to optimize PHP for mobile devices and the cloud

  PHP development tools maker Zend Technologies will make mobile access to applications a critical part of its product strategy on Tuesday, along with emphasizing cloud computing.

• 7 programming languages on the rise

  In the world of enterprise programming, the mainstream is broad and deep. Code is written predominantly in one of a few major languages. For some shops, this means Java; for others, it's C# or PHP. Sometimes, enterprise coders will dabble in C++ or another common language used for high-performance tasks such as game programming, all of which turn around and speak SQL to the database.

• HTML5 makes maths easy

  The W3C has updated its MathML standard for rendering mathematical notation on Web pages to better portray basic math symbols, as well as render mathematic symbols in more languages.

• VMware to offer cloud development environment

  VMware plans to offer a hosted development environment that should ease the deployment of applications to cloud environments, the company announced Tuesday.

• Twitter solves its data formatting challenge

  Eschewing popular choices such as XML, CSV and JSON, Twitter has opted to format the back-end storage of its user and systems data with a relatively unknown format pioneered by Google, called Protocol Buffers.

• Oracle, IBM hold hands on Java

  Oracle and IBM, who are usually bitter rivals, pledged on Monday to collaborate on OpenJDK, which has served as the principal reference implementation of open source Java.

• Rubinius Ruby language variant gets an upgrade

  Rubinius, an implementation of the Ruby programming language featuring enhancements for JIT (Just In Time) compilation and garbage collection, is being upgraded Friday, gaining improvements in debugging, memory usage, and performance.

• JavaOne debate: Java EE vs. Spring

  The enterprise variant of Java faced off against the Spring Framework this week in a debate over which one developers should use for <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/t/java">Java</a> application development.