Order on Plantiff's Motion in Thendic Amiga Case

[Nybbler]

Hi mikeymike,

Tao's intent, and therefore DE, does indeed run Java, and they of course must have a Sun licence to do so. :-)  I think it's up to Personal Java 1.3 ATM. In fact it's Sun certified (or some such) that means Sun have endorsed it as being a good Java VM, especially as it runs Java pretty ok I fast (ok I don't have any benchmarks, but people always reported good things about it).

Rob

[Nybbler]

Hi brutus,

Like most interesting technology it's difficuly to explain DE in a short way (now now, let's not have anyone suggesting a single 4-letter word summary - resist!)

Basically it's an environment that you can write applications for, and this environment can run on many different systems, so once your app runs in the environment (think of it like a media player) then it runs everywhere the environment runs, without you needing to re-build it.

As a comparison, the Linux OS runs on lots of different CPUs (Intel x86, PowerPC, and lots of other CPUs). You can write an app for x86 Linux, but it won't run straight on PowerPC Linux - you have to rebuild it, which isn't always as easy as it could be! Note that in comparison to DE, Linux is a vast beast, whereas DE is not. A bit apples 'n' oranges really :-D

DE is actually built on top of the 'intent' environment, from a company called Tao. The AmigaDE part is extra functionality on-top of that.

Right now DE is good for developers because they can write an app (mostly games right now) and have it deployed on several different systems. In the future it should also be good for the user/consumer because they will be able to run the programs they've purchased on a wider variety of hardware. So you can imagine a situation where you're not tied to upgrading your x86 box to another x86 box because all your software is x86 only. The dream is that you'll be able to buy whatever the best hardware is at the time.

Does that help (or have I hindered?)

Rob  :-)

[Nybbler]

HI mikeymike,

Sure :-)

The easy bit is that it runs Java. This is an extract from www.amigadev.net front page:

"The environment provides a high performance, low resource development service set that allows for the development of Assembler, C/C++ and pJava content, whether it be simple utilities or screaming multimedia games. To see some examples, please visit the Amiga-Anywhere Shop or the website of one of our AmigaDE developers, Zeoneo."

As for the Sun certification I'll need a few more minutes....

Rob  :-)

[Nybbler]

@mikeymike
...as for the Sun certification:

I actually found this using google:

Sun Java Platform Resellers Deliver Java Technology for Embedded Devices

If you go to the 'Tao Group' bit (about 3/4 of the way down, just before 'Access') the last line reads:

"Tao's product is a Sun Authorized Virtual Machine and is certified against the PersonalJava specification test suite."

As for the performance, that might take me a bit longer to find. All I can say is that I was convinced that the people saying it was speedy were quite trustworthy. My opinion of course  :-D

Rob :-)

[Nybbler]

@mikeymike

I don't see any mention of AmigaDE on the Tao website, nor the Sun website, and:

I was going to say "I know, that's odd", but then I re-read it. If you look at that link I gave earlier, then the 3rd paragraph under Tao has the text "...Tao's implementation is also at the heart of the new Amiga system, which capitalizes on its comprehensive multimedia capabilities...". Admittedly it doesn't explicitly say AmigaDE, but it's in relation to Tao's intent, so it must be.  :-)

As for the Tao website, well I couldn't find anything except     Amiga Incorporated has entered into a strategic relationship with Tao Group for the New Amiga from back in 2000. There might be more, but I coudln't find a search function on their site.

"The environment provides a high performance, low resource development service set that allows for the development of Assembler, C/C++ and pJava content"

could just be a text editor.

Yeah, I suppose that is rather vague, but it definitely is not just an IDE. I've had the SDK from early on, and although I'm not using Java very much, I have seen and run Java apps under AmigaDE. If you're still not convinced then I'd have to just show you!  :-D

And this especially worries me:
"The first step in developing for the AmigaDE is to purchase the AmigaSDK, which will involve the signing of an Amiga Developer's NDA available here"

Yeah, that's an odd one. You don't actually HAVE to sign the NDA, if you can find a copy of the original SDK in a shop, but if you do then you can have access to much more info.

I was quite happy to sign the NDA as it's an emerging technology, and as such they don't want to publish all their work-in-progress without protecting themselves. It's what lots of IT (and I guess other) companies do. It may be that the data from Tao would require an NDA anyway? (I don't know, maybe not).

Have you even seen a demo of the SDK first-hand?

Rob  :-)