version question java JDK 5.0.xx

[ikeleong]

Hello;

I download java sdk version 5.0.xx, when I swinstall it, then do a swlist on it, the version number is 1.5.0.x.x, but HP refers to it has version 5.0.X

Just curious why that is

Regards;
Ike

[Srini Jay]

Both are the same... even Sun does the same with the naming convention.

Product (JDK/SDK) version number is 5.0.xx
and developer version number if 1.5.xx.

Check here for more details: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/

[Jeff_Traigle]

HP refers to it that way because that's how Sun, the developers of Java, refer to it. There are no set rules to versioning software. There have been some really oddball methods used by most companies and organizations at various times. Many of them were thrust upon us by marketing people, I'm sure. If I had to guess... the Java developers probably use and package the product under the 1.X.Y.Z versioning (the style we techie types are accustomed to seeing most of the time) and the Java marketers decided to start using the minor revision in their versioning references.

[George Liu_4]

A normal user just uses 5.0.x. 1.5.0 is for developers

[Andrew C Fieldsend]

When Sun released Java 1.2.x, they officialy named it "Java 2" to indicate that there was significant new functionality (and incompatibility) when compared with Java 1.1.

They did the same thing with Java 5/1.5, for the same reason.

Andy