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by 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.
1 comments
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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