“I find it very rewarding to design great APIs and have people come to me years later and say, wow, you know, the collections framework changed my life.”
"API design is a noble and rewarding craft"
"API design is tough"
Also, according to Andy Rubin (slide 73)
“Ha, wish them luck. Java.lang api’s are copyrighted. And Sun gets to say who they license the tck to, and forces you to take the ‘shared part’ which taints any clean room implementation.”
According to Google employee Bob Lee (Slide 72)
Q. Did you consult the Java docs when doing your work on the API implementations for Android?
A. Yes.
Q. Okay. And where did you obtain those Java docs?
A. They’re posted for free on Sun’s website...
Q. Did you observe any copyright notices on the specifications?
A. Yes.