Java Development Kit

Java Development Kit (JDK)
Developer(s) Oracle Corporation
Stable release Java Standard Edition 8 Update 40 (1.8.0_40) / 3 March 2015
Operating system Cross-platform
Type Software development kit
License Sun License (most of it also under GPL)
Website http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/index.html

The Java Development Kit (JDK) is an implementation of either one of the Java SE, Java EE or Java ME platforms[1] released by Oracle Corporation in the form of a binary product aimed at Java developers on Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X or Windows. The JDK includes a private JVM and a few other resources to finish the recipe to a Java Application.[2] Since the introduction of the Java platform, it has been by far the most widely used Software Development Kit (SDK). On 17 November 2006, Sun announced that it would be released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), thus making it free software. This happened in large part on 8 May 2007, when Sun contributed the source code to the OpenJDK.[3]

JDK contents

The JDK has as its primary components a collection of programming tools, including:

Experimental tools may not be available in future versions of the JDK.

The JDK also comes with a complete Java Runtime Environment, usually called a private runtime, due to the fact that it is separated from the "regular" JRE and has extra contents. It consists of a Java Virtual Machine and all of the class libraries present in the production environment, as well as additional libraries only useful to developers, such as the internationalization libraries and the IDL libraries.

Copies of the JDK also include a wide selection of example programs demonstrating the use of almost all portions of the Java API.

Ambiguity between a JDK and an SDK

The JDK forms an extended subset of a software development kit (SDK). It includes "tools for developing, debugging, and monitoring Java applications".[5] Oracle strongly suggests that they now use the term "JDK" to refer to the Java SE Development Kit. The Java EE SDK is available with or without the "JDK", by which they specifically mean the Java SE 7 JDK.[6]

Other JDKs

In addition to the most widely used JDK discussed in this article, there are other JDKs commonly available for a variety of platforms, some of which started from the Sun JDK source and some which did not. All of them adhere to the basic Java specifications, but they often differ in explicitly unspecified areas, such as garbage collection, compilation strategies, and optimization techniques. They include:

In development or in maintenance mode:

Not being maintained or discontinued:

See also

References

  1. "Java SE 7 Features and Enhancements". Oracle Corporation. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  2. "OpenJDK homepage". Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  3. "Sun's May 8th announcement of source code for JDK".
  4. "JDK 5.0 Java Annotation Processing Tool (APT)-related APIs & Developer Guides -- from Sun Microsystems". Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  5. "Java SE Downloads". Oracle. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  6. "Java EE 7 SDK distributions require JDK 7" "Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 7 SDK - Installation Instructions". Installing the Software. Oracle. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  7. "Azul Zing product page".
  8. "Azul Zulu download page".
  9. "developerWorks : IBM developer kits : Downloads". Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  10. "JRockit Family Download page". Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  11. "Support at Apple".
  12. "Java Linux Contact Information". Archived from the original on 19 August 2007. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  13. "Java-Linux Latest Information". Archived from the original on 19 October 1996. Retrieved 2012-08-05.

External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Java Programming