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From: "Tristan B. Kildaire" <deavmi@disroot.org>
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Subject: Re: array class names
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2017 19:30:08 +0200
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On 2017-03-06 02:41 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 3/5/2017 7:38 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 3/5/2017 6:30 PM, Volker Borchert wrote:
>>> Does anybody out there know why long[] is called "[J" and Object[]
>>> is called "[Ljava.lang.Object;" rather than the more obvious "[L"
>>> and "[Ojava.lang.Object;" (or maybe "[Rjava.lang.Object;" if 'O'
>>> is too similar a zero)?
>>
>> It is documented what they are:
>>
>> https://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jvms/se8/html/jvms-4.html#jvms-4.3.2-200
>>
>>
>>
>> But you are asking about why these letters were chosen.
>>
>> That probably require someone working for SUN back in the mid 90's
>> to answer.
>
> BTW, you are not the only one wondering:
>
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14882998/in-java-serialisation-why-does-j-signify-a-long-and-l-signify-an-object
>
>
> Arne
>
>
Feels like the question of why imaginary numbers in Python start with j 
and not i. The answer though, I do not know.