Danny Coward's Sun Weblog

Monday December 11, 2006

Java SE 6: Top Ten
Filed under: javase6

My top 10 new features...your top 10 reasons to upgrade.

And what we're blogging about.

Countdown	Summary	Who's blogging about it ?
Web Services	Easy to use APIs for developing web service clients.	Rajiv and Bob's write first an introduction to web services with NetBeans 5.5 and then building a Java SE 6 client to eBay, included as one of the new samples in Java SE 6. Not forgetting the new lightweight http server API for callbacks.
Scripting	Mix scripting and Java in your code. Javascript comes as standard, you can add many more languages.	John gets busy with the scripting. Sundar gets him some scripting, says hello, and uses the new scripting features to experiment with AJAX. Mike and Sundar talked at JavaOne on scripting.
Database	Updated JDBC 4.0 APIs, and an all-Java JDBC database included in the JDK.	Lance, when not playing tennis, blogs frequently on the updated JDBC 4.0, SQLXML, the RowID interface, wrapper interface. David talks about bundling JavaDB, and this week Francois will cover various aspects of JavaDB.
New Desktop APIs	Swingworker, JTable sorting and filtering, GroupLayout and more.	Chet ain't no Julie Andrews but he cranks out quite a tune about the new Java SE 6 desktop, Shannon drags and drops with SE 6, Scott doesn't forget that if you look after the pennies the pounds will look after themselves; and going mega modal with Praveen and the new dialog infrastructure.
Monitoring and Management	All the m&m tools now attach on demand. And there's a new one: jhat.	Dr Mandy, our code doctor, is in the house, and takes us through all the M&M improvements, as well as the makeover we gave to JConsole. Alan opens the hood on dynamic attach, more from Sundar. We can't keep him down. Eamonn recaps on mBeans, and Luis Miguel on another important change to JConsole.
Compiler Access	Programmatically control the javac compiler.	Peter on why you should upgrade (do you NEED any more reasons ?), and including the compiler APIs.
Pluggable Annotations	Define your own annotations and plug in the code to process them.	Joe grilled by Artima about pluggable annotations.
Desktop Deployment	Swing's better looking and better accelerated. Revamped runtime and application installation.	Chet can't keep a lid on great Java SE 6 runs on Vista. Stanley sayings a tearful farewell to the old installation GUIs. And get the skinny on making Swing look and feel even better.
Security	Integration with services like PKI, Java GSS, Kerberos, and LDAP.	Andreas on smoothing a corner or two, how about those new XMLDSIG APIs, and Sean's ultimate guide to what's new in security in Java SE 6.
Performance and Quality	Double digit improvements in performance, client and server. 100,000+ tests for compatibility alone.	Dave 'mr performance' Dagastine on performance, more performance, and the new 'hands-free' performance. And how do we test for compatibility, Patrick ?

Of course there are many more features that may be in your top 10. Like some of the enhancements to the core APIs that Dave's talking about.

Posted by dannycoward ( Dec 11 2006, 06:05:00 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [21]

Java SE 6 Released: THANKYOU !
Filed under: javase6

What's the BIG NEWS today ? Hit play....

A massive thankyou: THANKYOU to everyone in the Java Community, either inside Sun or outside (or both..) who has helped make todays Java SE 6 release happen:

By designing a technology in an expert group, reviewing one of the specification drafts, participating in a discussion about it, downloading one of the weekly early access builds and sharing your experience. By heckling in a presentation, blogging about Java SE, testing this platform for quality, backward compatibility, speed, stability, adherence to the spec. By creating tutorials, samples, documentation, books and articles.

And thanks, to you, in advance, for using it.

Posted by dannycoward ( Dec 11 2006, 03:00:05 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [1]

Thursday December 07, 2006

Java SE 7 Caught on Camera
Filed under: javase7

What with open sourcing the JDK and all, our early head start on Java SE 7 planning has

slowed from a run to a trot. Not to worry, every thoroughbred needs to catch its breath between races, with Java SE 6 only on the verge of completion. And there are good signs we can get the Java SE 7 planning team here at Sun to pick up steam again in the New Year.

But in the meantime, I've continued to update our current thinking since last time I blogged about Java SE 7 on where we would like to take the next version of the platform, and what we will be proposing to the JCP. Since I'm now in the video age (I'm sure you saw my debut), what better way than get the update than to watch me talking about it at the infamous Czech Java Users Group in Prague last month.

Java SE 7 Update

Slides

PDF, ~350K

Video (WMV - sigh, I know...)

For those of you watching the video, I start talking at the 50 minute mark. Rob Harwood fom JetBrains kicks off with a talk on an interesting use of annotations in IntelliJ IDE, and there are various celeb sightings of my techno-buddy Roumen in there too.