can someone explain to me which is which and what are the differences.... im gonna be using it to make games so...i hope that helps thanx [Edit: Write sensible topics. You only need one question mark! - Oluseyi] [Edited by - Oluseyi on November 10, 2004 12:06:20 AM]

You may be right with the J2ME being Java 2 Mobile Edition (don't hold me to that). However, J2SE is Java 2 Standard Edition, and J2EE is Java 2 Enterprise Edition. I don't know offhand the major differences, but J2EE is meant to be more suited to an enterprise...I've never bothered to really look into it, so that's all I've got. :-P

Theres also JSP, JSTL, JSPG, EJB, JDBC, and JXTA.

JSP - Java Server Pages (doing web stuff)
JSTL - Java Server Pages Standard Tag Library
JSPG - an expression language
EJB - Enterprise JavaBeans
JDBC - Database (ODBC)
JXTA - for doing P2P stuff

theres more I think.

J2SE is (as already mentioned) Java 2 Standard Edition.

This is Java, when you hear that talked about, this is the Java for which you download a JVM (Java Virtual Machine) from sun on Windows or Linux (or whatever) ...

The standard Java virtual machine (JVM) and Software Development Kit (SDK) has had 5 versions so far ...

Java 1.0 - Just called Java, or Java 1.0
Java 1.1 - Java 1.1
Java 1.2 - Java 2 [this version made major changes]
Java 1.3 - Java 2, version 1.3
Java 1.4 - Java 2, version 1.4
Java 1.5 - Not Sure, One of these (Java 2 version 1.5, Java 2 version 5 I think) [this version added generics]

J2EE is Java 2 Enterprise Edition, which is used for developing enterprise (aka client / server and web software). It includes Java Servlet technologies, and other features to create and host web services, and do remoting and communication over network protocols.

J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition) is for PDA and cell phone type use (really ANY embedded use, but those are the most common) - because Java tries to make all systems look the SAME (the virtual machine concept) and machines like cell phones and PDAs cannot be made to look and act like normal computers (and even each other), J2ME is a very minimal subset of Java that all J2ME devices support, and then device profiles and extensions which allow access to the devices specific functionality (such as using the phone, accessing the internal address book, reading the pen ...)

JSP (Java Server Pages) is a system for dyanamic web pages (just like PHP, ASP, ASP.NET eruby, cgi, etc ...)

JDBC is (as mentioned) the Java system for accessing different database back ends through a somewhat uniform driver interface ... like ODBC, ADO.NET, etc ...

Java Beans and Struts are part of J2EE I believe (not sure) ...

The CORE Java spec, aka what is meant by Java 1.3 or Java 1.4 includes a LANGAUGE (like C#), a set of libraries (like the .NET Framework Class Libraries in .NET [FCL]), and a Virtual Machine (like the Common Language Runtime [CLR]).

When people say C# is like Java, they mainly mean the language structure and syntax.

When people say .NET is like Java, they mainly mean the Virtual Machine, the ByteCode / Intermediate Language compilation, and the presence of a significant body of standard libraries (APIs).

Oh yeah, the Java Software Development Kits, (1.0 - 1.5) are not refered to by Sun as "Java SDKs", instead they are called "Java Development Kits" JDKs.

So then it makes a little more sense to say:

JDK 1.0 - targets JVM 1.0 - using Java
JDK 1.1 - targets JVM 1.1 - using Java, with the JVM/JDK 1.1 tools and libraries
JDK 1.2 - targets JVM 1.2 - using Java 2, with JVM/JDK 1.2 tools and libraries
JDK 1.3 - targets JVM 1.3 - using Java 2, with JVM/JDK 1.3 tools and libraries
JDK 1.4 - targets JVM 1.4 - using Java 2, with JVM/JDK 1.4 tools and libraries
JDK 1.5 - targets JVM 1.5 - using Java 2, with JVM/JDK 1.5 tools and libraries