Re: Java 1.0 versus 1.2

[Bob Pendleton <bobp@pendleton.com>]

There is very little difference in the core language between Java 1.0,
1.1, and 1.2. The biggest difference in the core language is a change to
let Java do floating point faster on x86 computers. 

The big differences are in the APIs and runtime support in the different
versions of Java. Each version of Java has made Java run faster. The
current version of Java 1.2.2 runs almost as fast as c++ code. The REAL
difference is that they keep adding new APIs. The original version of
Java had very limited support for anything. The current version has a
very nice event handling architecture (added in 1.1) and much better
windowing and widget support (swing) and adds a nice 2d api, and better
support for video. 1.3 (available in Beta) has a very nice sound API.

So, if you learn any version you can keep using what you learned on all
the later versions. It can be hard to decide which version to learn. If
you want to write applets that work with all Java capable browsers you
need to learn 1.0 (if they support java at all they support 1.0.2). If
you are just worried about current versions of Navigator and IE then you
should learn 1.1, the current versions of both Navigator and IE support
versions of 1.1. 

If you are planning to write stand alone games I would look at version
1.3. It is the first version with everything you need to write a
commercial quality game with out using JNI (Java Native Interface) to
call native media APIs.

			Bob P.

Jonathan Smith wrote:
> 
> Can somebody please tell me the difference between java version 1.0 and 1.2?
> Does this mean you have to learn the whole java language over everytime they
> come out with a newer version of it? Also, what is the newest java version
> out and is it free?  Thanks everybody. I need this info because in about 2
> months I plan to learn java and I don't want to make any stupid mistakes.
> 
>                                       Peace and God bless
>                                          Jonathan Smith
> 
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