31 August 2010

What's It All Mean, Mr. Natural?

The issue is: what does Oracle think it can win? The answer appears to be a fat license fee from Google. The fact that some Google folk once worked at Sun is irrelevant. Dalvik was built independently of the jvm, and doesn't resemble it. It does not translate/compile java bytecode/classfiles on the fly. The development is done in java (SE, I believe, via Harmony/Apache; if they use the ME, then there's trouble). Once the .class file exists, it is translated to Dalvik .dex format. This is no different from using C to write a java compiler. Or using java to write any other DSL. Unless, and I don't know the answer, there is verbiage somewhere that .class files "must be" run on a certified jvm, then Google is fine.

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