JLS 4.2.3 contains the sentence:

"Except for NaN, floating-point values are ordered. Arranged from smallest to largest, they are negative infinity, negative finite nonzero values, positive and negative zero, positive finite nonzero values, and positive infinity. "

From the point of view of the floating-point == operator, -0.0 and +0.0 are in the same equivalence class, -0.0 == +0.0 is true. However, for the ordering imposed by Double.compare/Double.compareTo, -0.0 is less than +0.0.

Therefore, it would be preferable if instead of saying

" positive and negative zero"

the sentence in question said

" negative and positive zero"