9.527 Java, Blackbird, Shockwave

Humanist (mccarty@phoenix.Princeton.EDU)
Fri, 9 Feb 1996 21:10:52 -0500 (EST)

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 9, No. 527.
Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities (Princeton/Rutgers)
Information at http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/

[1] From: "John M. Unsworth" <jmu2m@virginia.edu> (25)
Subject: Re: 9.523 the openness of Java

On Tue, 6 Feb 1996, Humanist wrote:

> [1] From: "Richard L. Goerwitz III" <richard@mithra- (25)
> orinst.uchicago.edu>
> >
[...]
> Perhaps Microsoft is also taking this route. I know nothing about Black-
> bird, but if history is any guide, Microsoft is focusing on Windows, and
> the source code and specs aren't being dealt with nearly as openly as
> Java's. Actually, is the source code even being released? Or is this
> just another piece of totally proprietary software?
>
> Someone please enlighten us about the specifics, with URLs if possible.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Richard Goerwitz
> U of Chicago

Well, there's a concise and fairly unbiased rundown on Java, Blackbird,
and Shockwave at http://zeppo.cnet.com/Content/Voices/Barr/112795/index.html
--perhaps the most important thing to note, up front and first of all,
about Blackbird is that, like the Microsoft Network, it has been redescribed
and reinvented many times by Microsoft, so there will be many conflicting
understandings (and descriptions) of what it is supposed to be and do.

John Unsworth
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.village.virginia.edu/~jmu2m/ jmu2m@virginia.edu