Sun Microsystems' James Gosling, the creator of Java, returned to the stand Thursday in the Microsoft antitrust trial. Gosling has cited Microsoft's changes to Java as Windows-centric, designed to splinter the Java community and remove it as a threat to Windows. Micrsoft lawyers on Thursday attempted to prove, however, that it was Sun that spurned Microsoft over Java, in a deliberate attempt to leave the Redmond software company out of the development of the language. At one point, there was an interesting exchange between Judge Jackson and Gosling.
"A goodly part of the cross-examination had to do with evidence that what Microsoft did was grasp the significance of the work you were doing and run with it, and produce a better version of it," Jackon said. "You simply couldn't catch up?"
"Well, they represent it as better, but their version of better is tied to the Windows platform and prevents interoperability with others," Gosling answered.
Microsoft's lawyers showed email evidence that the company attempted to work with Sun on Java and was ignored. They also alterted Sun well before licensing Java that they intended to "extend" the language with additions that were specific to Windows
