U.S. ISO representatives say no to Sun's Java standardization

Representatives from the United States group of the International Standards Organization and International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) voted "no with comments" to Sun's attempt at getting the Javaprogramming language standardized. The U.S. vote was affected by negativecomments toward Sun made by Apple Computer, Microsoft, Intel Corporation,Hewlett Packard, and Compaq Computer, all of which don't wish to see Sunretain rights to Java. These companies feel that for Java to be considereda true standard, the entire language specification and the "100% PureJava" initiative must be given up by Sun to a neutral third party. Sun, for their part, would like their JavaSoft division to handle the management of Java. IBM, Digital Equipment Corp. and Unisys Corp. aresupporting Sun.

Sun will incorporate suggestions made by the U.S. group into a new proposal that will be submitted sometime in the next few months