Danny Coward's Sun Weblog

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20061211 Monday December 11, 2006

Java SE 6: Top Ten

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]

Comments:

There are *always* good reasons to upgrade to a newer Java version. And the Java team, entirely, is *awesome*. Thanks for this GREAT release... Renato.

Posted by Renato Perini on December 11, 2006 at 06:57 AM PST #

Nice entry! Great resource for updating one's info about Java 6.

Abhi

Posted by Abhi on December 11, 2006 at 08:30 AM PST #

Is there any language change? I noticed that the compiler is now more strict about casts, in the compatibility notes, but that's all.

Posted by Ricky Clarkson on December 11, 2006 at 03:54 PM PST #

We always use the latest version for testing and development.

BUT BEWARE: Printing in Linux DOES NOT WORK!!!
This has been reported in developer forums months ago and is not yet fixed. Java 6 should not have been released into production with such a major flaw in it. This is a major show-stopper for us. Until this is fixed we can't even start discussing all new features and enhancements.
Sun PLEASE fix this ASAP!

Posted by Dummy on December 12, 2006 at 01:21 AM PST #

I think all that JAVA needs is like a MAC like interface, No matter how strong the technology is inside , unless you have a pleasing interface, it is hard to sell in the market. I wonder why you dont have any comment on the screen interface!!!!!!! Does it score better in that Sense??????

Posted by sasi raj on December 12, 2006 at 01:57 AM PST #

JTable sorting?

Man, you Sun guys are living on another planet. You are still chasing ghosts that are hounting you from the '90s.

Your real competitor is .Net 3.0 which is leaping a decade forward. Take a look at WPF and WF, which bring designer and business manager (=the customer) into the development cycle, for real productivity.

And how about WPF/E , the applet killer (what's left after Flash and AJAX). Also here.

JDBC a top ten reason to use Java 6? Check the C# LINQ .

Thanks to 3-rd party community-driven OSS projects, like Hibernate, Spring and Groovy (and many more) we have modern tools that increase productivity and make us competitive versus the Microsoft crowd.

Because, Sun, you are doing a great job with Java, but you are not pushing the envelope to keep us competitive. Hope, you get the message.

Posted by Dummy on December 12, 2006 at 02:06 AM PST #

Hi, I agree that the new heap dump feature is great, but it's not even unique to JDK 1.6 anymore, because its also available now on JDK 1.4 and 1.5. JHat can also be used on the older JDK's, also I have to say that it pretty much sucks. The memory requirements of JHAT are enormous. It's unusable for a serious server application. Fortunately there's at least one alternative. See also my weblog here https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/u/6389 Regards, Markus

Posted by Markus Kohler on December 12, 2006 at 11:03 AM PST #

Printing in Linux DOES NOT WORK!!!

Well, this is just not true.

Yes, there are issues only in certain configurations. And the bug had been fixed already and the fix will appear in jdk6 and jdk5 update releases, so please, don't dramatize.

Thanks,
Dmitri
Java2D Team

Posted by Dmitri Trembovetski on December 12, 2006 at 10:04 PM PST #

No 1:Scripting No 2:Web service others all right

Posted by Niraj Manandhar on December 12, 2006 at 10:39 PM PST #

Making it more complex!!!

Posted by yaqoob on December 13, 2006 at 02:07 AM PST #

And have they improved the garbage collection? Thanks.

Posted by David on December 13, 2006 at 08:39 AM PST #

[Trackback] Sun Microsoft announced that they just released Java SE 6. Depending on who you ask, this is a great thing, or just so so. Joey deVilla, from Global Nerdy, was not impressed with Java 6. Of  course, he has made a significant effort to avoid getting su...

Posted by Teckie Life at Southwest MSU... on December 14, 2006 at 08:39 PM PST #

I think all that JAVA needs is like a MAC like interface, No matter how strong the technology is inside , unless you have a pleasing interface, it is hard to sell in the market. I wonder why you dont have any comment on the screen interface!!!!!!! Does it score better in that Sense??????

Posted by sohbet alemi on March 05, 2007 at 02:30 AM PST #

Man, you Sun guys are living on another planet. You are still chasing ghosts that are hounting you from the '90s. Your real competitor is .Net 3.0 which is leaping a decade forward. Take a look at WPF and WF, which bring designer and business manager (=the customer) into the development cycle, for real productivity.

Posted by canli yayin on March 18, 2007 at 12:49 PM PDT #

Hi, I agree that the new heap dump feature is great, but it's not even unique to JDK 1.6 anymore, because its also available now on JDK 1.4 and 1.5. JHat can also be used on the older JDK's, also I have to say that it pretty much sucks. The memory requirements of JHAT are enormous. It's unusable for a serious server application. Fortunately there's at least one alternative. See also my weblog here https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/u/6389 Regards,

Posted by yesil perde on March 21, 2007 at 11:43 AM PDT #

nice text. thanks!!!

Posted by msn nickleri on April 16, 2007 at 06:29 AM PDT #

Good post thanks you all

Posted by güzel kızlar on April 17, 2007 at 01:03 AM PDT #

Wouww nice text. Thanks all!!!

Posted by kız msnleri on April 26, 2007 at 07:54 AM PDT #

Making it more complex!!!

Posted by Sedat on May 05, 2007 at 05:45 AM PDT #

This is a great article. Though I’m not a fan of wordpress, it’s still very useful!

Posted by Fikra on May 06, 2007 at 03:59 PM PDT #

There are many comments here concerning MS abandoning development of IE for 5 years, and if you think about it, you'll probably realize it was on purpose, and a very thought out decision, with a specific goal. Remmember that the web is a platform in itself, and renders the host operating system more irrelevant, so it did not play well for MS to develop something that would give people the ability to avoid Windows. It was probably a very well thought out decision to stop developing IE, thus delaying the adoption of the web as means to deploy applications. Notice how only now, 10 years in the future, we're starting to get usable web applications that compete with standard desktop apps. Somehow I can't see MS simply "ignoring" IE, I honestly believe they chose to stop developing it so people would focus less on web solutions and more on OS dependant solutions they presented through Windows. Also, that strategy meant that applications that did use the browser, would more likely rely on ActiveX components to deal with the shortcomings of web technology. So, in a way, they were successful, delaying innovation on the web for several years, and keeping more people concerned about their OS.

<u>SOHBET</u>

Posted by sohbet on May 07, 2007 at 09:41 AM PDT #

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