(This section is taken from the Introduction of the README file.)
Thank you for downloading the JDK 1.1.8 release.
This is version 1.1.8 of the Java Development Kit, also known as
JDK 1.1.8 The JDK lets you write applets and applications that
conform to the Java 1.1 Core API. It includes improvements in
functionality, performance, and quality over JDK 1.0.2, and includes
bug fixes since JDK 1.1.
JDK 1.1.8 is a maintenance release. Changes made to the JDK since
the first 1.1 beta release are in the file named CHANGES.
Because there are no API changes in maintenance releases, we continue
to refer to this platform as the Java 1.1 Platform (rather than 1.1.8
While bugs have been fixed in 1.1.8 the platform hasn't changed.
JDK 1.1 offers new capabilities: Internationalization, signed applets,
JAR file format, AWT (window toolkit) enhancements, JavaBeans(tm)
component model, networking enhancements, Math package for large
numbers, Remote Method Invocation, Reflection, database connectivity,
new Java Native Interface, Object Serialization, Inner
Classes, and performance enhancements.
For further description of these features, see the "New Feature
Summary" in the JDK documentation.
As part of our ongoing effort to improve the quality of the JDK,
we will continue to fix bugs and develop new features.
In order to help us prioritize our bug-fixing effort, please submit
any bugs you find as soon as possible, using the procedure described
in the "Reporting Bugs" section below.
The JDK is a product of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
JavaSoft is the operating company of Sun that develops the JDK.
Purpose
The JDK allows you to:
Develop applets that will run in browsers supporting Java 1.1,
such as HotJava version 1.0, and future versions of Netscape
Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Develop Java applications.
Version Compatibility
In general, any applet or application that ran in JDK 1.0.2 should
run correctly in JDK 1.1. A failure to do so is a bug, except
for a small number of cases where compatibility has had to be
broken to close potential security holes, or fix implementation
or design bugs.
Of course, applets that depend on any new 1.1 APIs will not work on
any browsers that support only 1.0.2, such as Internet Explorer 3.0,
Netscape 3.0, and the alpha and pre-beta1 versions of the HotJava
browser. However, in general, applets relying only on APIs defined
in 1.0.2 (but compiled with the JDK 1.1 compiler) will run on 1.0.2
browsers. This "downwards" compatibility has not been extensively
tesed and cannot be guaranteed.
For more details, see the document on compatibility at:
If you find any such incompatibilities that are not listed on the
Compatibility web page, please report them to us as noted below
under "Reporting Bugs," and mention that they are compatibility
bugs. Compatibility is critically important to us, and a cornerstone
of Java's "Write Once Run Anywhere" promise.
What This Documentation Covers
NOTE - The documentation included in this download bundle covers only the new
features of version 1.1. It does not attempt to cover the features that have
remained unchanged since 1.0. For information about those features, see the
documentation available on the JavaSoft website in
The Java Tutorial
and in the Java Series of books.
The Contents page of this documentation contains links to
all of the documentation in this release, plus links to some pages on the JavaSoft
website. Note the first few entries are actually located in the java
(software) directory rather than in the docs (documentation) directory.
If you download just the documentation and not the software, you will not be
able to access those java files.
Most of this documentation package is in HTML. Portable Document Format (PDF)
and Postscript (PS) versions of sections of this document are also available
from the download page
http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.1.
For the most part, this JDK documentation is standalone.
This means once you've downloaded the JDK docs, you can disconnect from
the web, and browse the JDK docs locally. Some ancillary documentation,
such as the Java Tutorial, is available by links to the JavaSoft website.
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