In May 1998, Ed Burton joined Soda, and it was around this time that he wrote the first Java version of the Constructor, mostly as a fun way to teach himself Java. The Soda team experimented with the program, creating the twelve basic models that are now presented as examples. This version of the program existed quietly on the soda website, still not being advertised or spread as an official Soda product. This small project eventually began to evolve into the "sodaconstructor", spreading only by word of mouth.