# The good ol’ days of building Java

An episode of [The Stack Overflow Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1483510527), 1 Sep 2026, 30 min.

Audio: https://rss.art19.com/episodes/4c7e3392-0b78-4a06-a404-88a4dee72fb4.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIhVJbnZpc2libGVOZXR3b3JrBjoGRVQ%3D--0761ee75eb25694efc17849092f8583c07f6c68b

Ryan sits down with Tim Lindholm, an early contributor to the Java language at Sun Microsystems, to chat about what it was like building one of the most popular programming languages ever at its inception, why it was strategically important for the Java team to create a cross-platform ABI to compete with Windows NT, and how applets were initially just an interesting demo. Episode notes: Watch the new documentary by Cult.Repo on YouTube to learn more about the early history of Java and the people who built it. Connect with Tim Lindholm on LinkedIn. Shoutout to user gabuzo for winning a Populist badge for answering What is the standard method for generating a nonce in Python?. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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