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by vorg 4349 days ago
> I am enjoying my current stack (Java8/Clojure/Groovy)

Not just trendiness, but also whether a spec exists, from which alternative implementations can be reliably built. Some language despots (e.g. Python's) have even had moritorium periods of no new features specifically to help other implementations catch up. The spec announcement is a step forward for PHP.

Your current stack is at widely varying extremes along the spec continuum:

* Java 8 is fully spec'd to intricate detail, and Java has implementations other than Oracle's. Anyone can build an implementation as long as they don't call it Java.

* Clojure is informally spec'd by the comments in the functions, and what little grammar there is is explained on the clojure.org website. Alternative implementations exist to varying degrees of compatibility, e.g. ClojureScript doesn't have native macros.

* Groovy has virtually no spec at all after 11 yrs. Despite it being spec-driven at first, its JSR was inactive for 7 yrs, then changed to dormant status 3 yrs ago. My personal experience is the Codehaus project management actively prevent other implementations being built.
1 comments
DCKing 4349 days ago
I was untder the impression that a Java implementation that wants to call itself Java can actually call itself Java if it is made to pass specification test suites.

There is currently one major Java(-like) implementation that does not do that, and that is the variety that runs on Android. But there are plemty of other Javas that call themselves a Java.

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needusername 4348 days ago
Right, you have to buy and pass the test suites (TCK).

The thing with Android is they are not close passing the test suites (AFAIK Harmony was close but Android is only a fraction of Harmony).

Compare what Android implements: http://developer.android.com/reference/packages.html And what they would have to implement: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/ Of course the difference is even bigger for newer Java Versions (NIO.2, Date Time API, Fork-Join, …).

In addition I believe the linking semantics in Dalvik are slightly than in Java, eg. slf4j needs a special version to not fail during dex translation.

I'm not sure whether there is actually an official Java implementation that does not have a license of the implementation from Sun/Oracle or uses OpenJDK. If not they would have to reimplement all of the classes including AWT/Swing. Azul for example does have a license for Zing. I'm not sure if IBM already builds on OpenJDK.

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