Java Collections Framework - History

History

Collection implementations in pre-JDK 1.2 versions of the Java platform included few data structure classes, but did not contain a collections framework. The standard methods for grouping Java objects were via the array, the Vector, and the Hashtable classes, which unfortunately were not easy to extend, and did not implement a standard member interface.

To address the need for reusable collection data structures, several independent frameworks were developed, the most used being Doug Lea's Collections package, and ObjectSpace Generic Collection Library (JGL), whose main goal was consistency with the C++ Standard Template Library (STL).

The collections framework was designed and developed primarily by Joshua Bloch, and was introduced in JDK 1.2. It reused many ideas and classes from Doug Lea's Collections package, which was deprecated as a result. Sun choose not to use the ideas of JGL, because they wanted a compact framework, and consistency with C++ was not one of their goals.

Doug Lea later developed a concurrency package, comprising new Collection-related classes. An updated version of these concurrency utilities was included in JDK 5.0 as of JSR 166.

Read more about this topic:  Java Collections Framework

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    The greatest horrors in the history of mankind are not due to the ambition of the Napoleons or the vengeance of the Agamemnons, but to the doctrinaire philosophers. The theories of the sentimentalist Rousseau inspired the integrity of the passionless Robespierre. The cold-blooded calculations of Karl Marx led to the judicial and business-like operations of the Cheka.
    Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)

    When the history of this period is written, [William Jennings] Bryan will stand out as one of the most remarkable men of his generation and one of the biggest political men of our country.
    William Howard Taft (1857–1930)

    Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.
    Norman Mailer (b. 1923)