Sun Microsystems Inc has provided an update on the state of its testing procedures of Microsoft Corp products to test their Java compatibility and Microsoft, it appears, has taken note of some of Sun’s complaints and made its products slightly more Java- compatible. Not much has really changed since Sun requested two further motions against Microsoft adding to the original lawsuit it brought against Redmond in October last year, alleging trademark infringement, false advertising, breach of contract and unfair competition, among other things in Internet Explorer 4.0 and its Java Software Development Kit (SDKJ). In March Sun was granted a preliminary injunction preventing Microsoft from using the Java logo and then it brought the two other motions that related to Windows 98 compatibility and also accused Microsoft of meddling with the core of the language. Sun says Microsoft is slightly more compatible now than in May, as implementations of the SDKJ, IE 4.0.1 and Visual J++ 6.0 no longer include mis- labeled class libraries. Those libraries led developers to believe they were writing cross-platform Java applications, when in fact they were writing Windows-specific apps. However, this is not the beginning of some Java compatibility drive on the part of Microsoft. The company was not saying much beyond that it claims to be in full compliance with all its contractual obligations and that it had the fastest and best Java implementation in the marketplace, which is not really the issue. But it also reminded us that it is in litigation with Sun, and therefore was not willing to say much. Sun says its testing of Microsoft applications, which is overseen by its senior engineering manager, Carla Schroer, is incremental as Microsoft provides it code-drops, which it is obliged to do under the terms of its Java licensing contract, which it signed March 12 1996. It says it has begun tests of Windows 98, but they have not yet been completed. The other aspects of Microsoft’s alleged incompatibility still remain, says Sun. These are the new keywords that Microsoft added to the language and the compiler directives that links the compiler to the virtual machine, which is not how Java is supposed to work. The case will be heard September 4, having recently been pushed back from July 31 at the request of both companies.
