Cry me a river, Sun

Sun Microsystems seems to have been broadsided by the release of the Android platform by Google and its partners. I downloaded the Android SDK and installed it into Eclipse, and it is a really slick platform for mobile Java development. Sun is pissed that Google decided to develop Android completely independently of the standardization process behind Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME). They're afraid that it might cause headaches for developers.

You know what has really caused a headache for developers of wireless Java applications? J2ME and its fractured, incomplete implementations. If J2ME were more than just another good idea from Sun, Android would be built around it because for all of their faults, one of the things that Google is consistently good about is supporting open standards. The fact that they had to go it alone, and create their own platform basically says that J2ME has failed.

There are two ways to look at Java: language and platform. Sun only wants people to look at Java as a platform. It's almost like the actual language is an afterthought to them sometimes. The Java platform that runs on Android is very different from the one specified by J2ME, but it is still the same <em>language</em>. Google did not add their own proprietary extensions to the syntax; all they did was write their own libraries to replace the standard ones.

Bitch all you want Sun, but Android makes writing mobile Java code interesting. Those of us who have always avoided J2ME, are starting to find that Android is at least several very bold, positive steps forward for mobile Java development. Android is open source already, which is more than could be said of the mainstream Java runtime for most of the time it has existed.

Now, what would be a really awesome battle for developers' support would be Java/Android from Google and ObjectiveC/iPhone from Apple. Two very cool, open languages to choose from. You know who would be the biggest loser? Microsoft because most Windows Mobile phones and devices are crap, and the ones that are good are still squarely behind the iPhone/iPod Touch and are at risk from the phones that will soon be running Android.