Java-Related April Fools Day Pranks

Although you'd never catch me stooping to this level, it has been interesting over the years to see some of the effort and thought put into Java-related April Fools' Day pranks. This post references and summarizes some of them.

Google Annotations Gallery (gag)

The Google Annotations Gallery (cleverly abbreviated as 'gag') is hosted on Google Code, so you may want to download that as soon as possible so that you do not miss out on it. Both gag-1.0.zip (original release) and gag-1.0.1.zip (supplements original release to "add many great user-suggested annotations"). These ZIP files include actual Java source code with the libraries that gag depends on.

Some of my favorite annotations provided by gag are @AhaMoment, @Blame, @BossMadeMeDoIt, @Facepalm, @Hack, @HandsOff, @IAmAwesome, @LegacySucks, @Magic, @Noop, and @OhNoYouDidnt.

I also enjoy the WHERE enumeration provided by 'gag' to allow one to specify "where" a particular annotation's meaning may have occurred. Values for WHERE cover the most likely locations to think up the best ideas (most "free time"): BATH, BED, BORING_MEETING, DMV, GYM_WORKOUT, SHOWER, TOILET, and TRAFFIC_JAM.

I was negligent in not mentioning the 'gag' library in my recent post on how to effectively divert blame.

New OpenJDK Project: Even Faster JDK Releases

This year (2018), the discuss OpenJDK mailing list includes a couple threads with April Fools' Day hoaxes. One of these, "New project proposal: even faster JDK releases," is particularly timely given the relatively recent change to a new Java release every six months. The new cadence has caused some concerns such as those described in "The Java release train is moving faster, but will developers be derailed?"

The April 1 proposal proposes "the creation of project Doomed, which aims to solve an extremely important issue caused by the currently specified fast release schedule, that of an equally fast adoption." Before making several other arguments for Project Doomed, the proposal states, "With project Doomed we aim at continuous release and deployment of the JDK, thus removing the need to have any version number and increase the adoption rate considerably and better position the JDK in the fast pacing world of cloud development."

New OpenJDK Project: The Block GC

Another April 1 thread on the discuss OpenJDK mailing list starts with the post "New Project Proposal: The Block GC." The proposal here is for "Block Chain GC", "an innovative new system for Garbage Collection." Among other advertised virtues of the Block Chain garbage collector is the ability for it to be "used to calculate hash values for popular cryptocurrencies, a.k.a. 'bitcoin mining'". The proposal also outlines where the default recipients of the revenues generated from the Block Chain garbage collector: "by default, the revenue extracted by the Block GC miner will be stored in the Block GC Project account. This revenue will be divided as follows: 90% will go to the initial committers of the Block GC Project, and 10% will go to the OpenJDK community."

Apache Software Foundation Sold to Oracle

The 2010 April Fools post "The Apache Software Foundation Receives Approval for Sale to Oracle Corporation" announced "Today, the Apache Software Foundation announced it has agreed to sell all IP and assets of the foundation to Oracle."

Frostbyte

ZeroTurnaround announced Frostbyte on April Fools Day in 2012 and advertised it as "a new stack-based language for the JVM" that was "born out of frustration of working with the standard Java software stack and tools." Among Frostbyte's advertised features were "use of inverse reverse Polish notation with parentheses" and "the built-in default language is Estonian." Perhaps the most promising feature of Frostbyte was "built-in AI that is able to make aesthetic judgments about your code and will outright disallow ugly code, over-abstractions and excessive copy-and-pasting."

Goto in Java

Another 2010 April Fools Day announcement was Joe Darcy's "Goto for the Java Programming Language." "Endorsed" by "Edsger Dijkstra" (author of "go to statement considered harmful"), this proposal advertises that it will "Provide the benefits of the time-testing goto control structure to Java programs." Fortunately, Java still doesn't have that form of a "goto," but it does have its own narrowly-scoped similar capability.

Neo 4 Java

On April Fools' Day 2016, the Neo4j blog announced Neo 4 Java, "a proprietary 100% pure Arabica available in the caffeine aisle soon, or possibly right at your desk if you happen to have a 3D printer or a really good intern."

Micecraft Java Edition Textures Finally Perfected

In "Java Edition Textures Finally Perfected," it was announced of April Fools Day this year that "a new default texture pack for the Java Edition of Minecraft" was being released. Not everyone thought this was funny because it apparently cost some Minecraft users quite a bit of time before they realized it was a one-day prank. A Minecraft bug, MC-127786, was reported with this moderator response, "April fools! This is an April Fools' joke by Mojang. Textures will return back to normal once April Fools' Day is over." Minecraft users should probably be especially wary of April Fools Day pranks because it's not the first time that Mojang has pulled one.

Conclusion

Several of the April Fools' Day posts described above required a surprising amount of ingenuity, effort, and time.