Slashdot Mirror

An anonymous reader writes "Oracle has released the first developer preview of Java 8 for the full range of platforms (Windows, Max OS X, Linux, Solaris). Java 8 is a major update to both language and platform with Lambda expressions, method references, default methods, a new Date and Time API, Compact Profiles, the Nashorn JavaScript Engine, and the removal of the Permanent Generation from the HotSpot virtual machine. 'This milestone is intended for broad testing by developers,' Java Platform Chief Architect Mark Reinhold wrote on his blog. 'We've run all tests on all Oracle-supported platforms and haven't found any glaring issues. We've also fixed many of the bugs discovered since we reached the Feature Complete milestone back in June.' Let the bug hunt commence!" This is the second part of the JDK "Plan B" where JDK 7 was pushed out without cool new features like lambda expressions to prevent stalling language development for too long.

hypnosec writes "Oracle has proposed a new project for OpenJDK — Nashorn, which aims to implement a high-performance yet lightweight JavaScript runtime that would run on the JVM natively. Nashorn will be headed by Jim Laskey, multi-language Lead at Oracle and the project will be sponsored by HotSpot group. The project proposes an implementation of JavaScript such that it can run standalone JavaScript applications via the JSR 223 APIs. Nashorn's design will enable it to take advantage of new JVM technologies like the MethodHandles and the InvokeDynamic APIs."

gkunene writes "Oracle has put Java 7 and 8 features up for Java Community approval, providing a clear indication of what the next two major versions of Java are likely to include. (Java 7 contents, Java 8 contents.) From the article: 'The JDK 7 and 8 JSRs represent Oracle's 'Plan B' approach for separating JDK 7 into two separate releases, splitting up features that were all originally intended for the Java 7 release. This approach is intended to help expedite new Java releases. Among the key components of the original Java 7 plan that are now set for inclusion in Java 8 are the Lambda and Jigsaw efforts. At JavaOne this year, Thomas Kurian, executive vice president, Oracle Product Development, explained that Lambda is all about bringing closures to the Java language. Kurian noted at the time that Lambda is intended to provide a more concise replacement for inner classes, as well as support automatically parallel operations on collections. Jigsaw is all about building modularity into the Java Virtual Machine.'"

gkunene writes "Oracle has put Java 7 and 8 features up for Java Community approval, providing a clear indication of what the next two major versions of Java are likely to include. (Java 7 contents, Java 8 contents.) From the article: 'The JDK 7 and 8 JSRs represent Oracle's 'Plan B' approach for separating JDK 7 into two separate releases, splitting up features that were all originally intended for the Java 7 release. This approach is intended to help expedite new Java releases. Among the key components of the original Java 7 plan that are now set for inclusion in Java 8 are the Lambda and Jigsaw efforts. At JavaOne this year, Thomas Kurian, executive vice president, Oracle Product Development, explained that Lambda is all about bringing closures to the Java language. Kurian noted at the time that Lambda is intended to provide a more concise replacement for inner classes, as well as support automatically parallel operations on collections. Jigsaw is all about building modularity into the Java Virtual Machine.'"

synodinos writes "The public draft of the Java EE 6 Platform specification has been published and will remain open for public review and feedback until the 23rd of Feb, 2009. Perhaps the most notable part of this delayed draft is the Web Profile, which is first profile in the history of the Java EE platform. The draft is available for download and contains both the Java EE 6 Spec and the Web Profile Spec. There is a poll running at java.net regarding what the community thinks about the new spec. Although participation is yet rather small the results tend to show that the released draft did not cause any excitement."

Jean-Marie Dautelle writes to inform us that the public review period ends on July 8 for JSR-275, "Measures and Units" Early Draft. The JSR-275 will be a major enhancement for Java 7 by providing "strong" typing (through class parameterization) and easy internationalization of Java programs, preventing conversion errors. The latest version 0.8 is available as a PDF. The reference implementation is provided by the JScience project under a BSD license."

jg21 writes "LinuxWorld draws attention to a curious use of ESR's The Cathedral and the Bazaar by the Sun Microsystems exec who currently talks about Linux more than he does even about Java. Apparently Sun's President and COO Jonathan Schwartz said at a press briefing last week that Java with its JCP is more like ESR's Bazaar than Linux, which he dismissed as being "awfully cathedral-like" since Linus is the final arbiter (or Great Dictator), and not a committee." But be sure you don't mis-use the word Java in this Bazaar or the Mall Police will totally get you.

jg21 writes "After Java 5, what will become of Calvin Austin now that he's lead engineer - and spec lead - in charge of J2SE on Linux? This interview shows him to be Sun's most personable developer asset after James Gosling. (Gosling BTW, who famously uses Mac OS rather than a PC, has a Linux box and uses the X support on OS X to run Java 5.) Asked what feature in the new Java edition he considered coolest of all, Austin without hesitation replied "Metadata" - the spec lead for that particular feature, Austin's former colleague at Sun Joshua Bloch, was headhunted recently by Google. Now Java, Linux, and Google would be quite a combo. Maybe that's what's fueling all the recent speculation that a Google browser would probably be a browser, feed reader, blog tool, desktop search, online search, gmail, news reader, photo editing, and online photo publishing all rolled into one."

bernfast writes "I've submitted a Java Specification Request on complementary currencies to the Java Community Process. This specification will allow to implement arbitrary units of exchange as Java currencies. Examples are timedollars and other community currencies. This JSR is still in need of an expert group and will probably not receive too much industry suppport, so any help from the open source community is welcome."

bernfast writes "I've submitted a Java Specification Request on complementary currencies to the Java Community Process. This specification will allow to implement arbitrary units of exchange as Java currencies. Examples are timedollars and other community currencies. This JSR is still in need of an expert group and will probably not receive too much industry suppport, so any help from the open source community is welcome."

fastdecade writes "Groovy, the open-source scripting language, has been submitted for a Java Specification Request (JSR). And not without strong support from venerable J2EE practitioner/author, Richard Monson-Haefel, who labels this "the beginning of a new era in the Java platform". Groovy can use Java objects easily and compiles to JVM byte code, but it is nonetheless a scripting language at heart and a great companion for the more heavyweight Java programming language. Most JSRs concern new APIs, and this is the first JSR for an alternative language. Imagine a common platform of standardised languages talking to each other ... this looms as a big threat to .Net and a rejuvenation of the Java platform."

fastdecade writes "Groovy, the open-source scripting language, has been submitted for a Java Specification Request (JSR). And not without strong support from venerable J2EE practitioner/author, Richard Monson-Haefel, who labels this "the beginning of a new era in the Java platform". Groovy can use Java objects easily and compiles to JVM byte code, but it is nonetheless a scripting language at heart and a great companion for the more heavyweight Java programming language. Most JSRs concern new APIs, and this is the first JSR for an alternative language. Imagine a common platform of standardised languages talking to each other ... this looms as a big threat to .Net and a rejuvenation of the Java platform."

Greg Wilkins writes "Core Developers Network have reviewed the good, the bad and the ugly of the 2.4 servlet specification being produced by JSR154 . As well as introducing the new features, those that are missing in action are discussed. Also existing and newly added problems in the specification are presented."

CHaN_316 writes "Yahoo is running a story called 'Is Java Finished?' It provides a brief overview of the strengths and weaknesses of J2EE and contrasts them with .NET. Classic arguments are brought up like Java being great for portability while .NET ties you down to Microsoft products, etc. It's interesting that they bring up the Java Community Process, and how it is a rather slow moving procedure that is causing Java to become stagnant."

nut writes "MIDP 2.0 is the latest version of the most common J2ME Profile. It comprises the Java Connected Limited Device Configuration (Usually referred to just as the CLDC) and a Java API for handheld wireless devices -- i.e. mobile phones, PDAs, etc. The MIDP 2.0 Style Guide for the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition is one of a class of books that every application developer should read, and that not enough do, much like Nielsen's classic Designing Web Usability. It provides cheap access to knowledge that is expensive to obtain. The title is almost a misnomer; Call it a usability guide and give a better idea of its usefulness." Read on for the rest of nut's review. MIDP 2.0 Style Guide for the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition author Cynthia Bloch, Annet Wagner pages 260 pages approx. publisher Addison Wesley rating 8 reviewer nut ISBN 0321198018 summary A comprehensive guide to usability in MIDP 2.0 programming.

MIDP 2.0 is also a fairly new specification -- in fact, the final release only came out in November of last year. Some phone and handheld manufacturers are already supporting it, however. Nokia, for example, have announced support for MIDP 2.0 on their Series 60 devices quite recently, and I would be very surprised if the competition hangs back in the wake of the success of the MIDP 1.0 specification.

A lot of the content in this book can be usefully applied to the many MIDP 1.0 devices. There is in fact a MIDP 1.0 style guide, now available online, but I would still recommend this book for the wealth of extra content that it has.

The MIDP 2.0 Style Guide is a widget-by-widget guide to best-practice programming with the MIDP 2.0 API. The information contained within comes from established design principles, J2ME programming and implementation experience, and usability studies. Usability studies, especially, don't come cheap. Such labour-intensive research is well out of the reach of most individual programmers and small companies, so there is real value for money here.

The layout is very browseable, with most of the sixteen chapters each being a set of recommendations for a specific widget such as a text box or a gauge. The first three chapters (this includes the introduction) are more concerned with defining the goals of the book, the technology it relates to and the bones of a user-interface design process. For the most part, each chapter follows a standard format that is defined in the introduction.

Some of the later chapters cover topics that have less to do with user interface design, such as application installation and management, and the security API. The table of contents is comprehensive, listing not only chapters but two layers of headings within chapters -- useful in a reference book.

There are two target audiences here: J2ME developers and MIDP 2.0 implementors. For the former, it's an excellent resource. For the latter, I would say it was required reading. This is because it ends up defining what amounts to a contract between MIDP implementors and application developers.

For instance, from two successive recommendations on text boxes:

Application Developers
"Use [The NON_PREDICTIVE] modifier in a textbox that has a URL, EMAIL, NUMERIC, or DECIMAL constraint. Email addresses and domain names are not typical words, so turning off predictive text input ..."

And in the next paragraph,

MIDP Implementors
"If the application specifies the NON_PREDICTIVE modifier, allow users to enter one character at a time without any predictive input facilities."

Clearly the first recommendation is only meaningful if the second has been followed already. There are lot of these sort of co-dependent recommendations, covering areas such as default actions for abstract commands, list selection defaults, field constraints, etc.

There is still a lot of slop in the MIDP 2.0 specification. Its scope is, after all, fairly broad -- encompassing forms and form widgets, graphics canvases, game canvases and sprites, command design patterns, messaging and networking, security and application delivery APIs. Besides which, large chunks of the spec are optional, or can be implemented in more than one way. In part this is to preserve backward compatibility with MIDP 1.0, but it also means that your UDP-based streaming video application might work on only some the devices that support the same standard.

This looseness is only to be expected in such a young technology, but it means that books such as this may help to define the standard if people use the recommendations they provide. I would expect many of the recommendations in here to become part of future versions of the MIDP specification.

NOTES:
For more information on J2ME in general, and MIDP in particular, I also recommend Programming Wireless Devices with the Java 2 Platform, Micro edition [2nd ed.] and, of course, there are all the specifications and tutorials at Sun's Java site.

The J2ME Wireless Toolkits versions 1.0.x and 2.0 are good starting points for development as well. Version 2.0 of the wireless toolkit supports MIDP 2.0.

You can purchase MIDP 2.0 Style Guide for the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

nut writes "MIDP 2.0 is the latest version of the most common J2ME Profile. It comprises the Java Connected Limited Device Configuration (Usually referred to just as the CLDC) and a Java API for handheld wireless devices -- i.e. mobile phones, PDAs, etc. The MIDP 2.0 Style Guide for the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition is one of a class of books that every application developer should read, and that not enough do, much like Nielsen's classic Designing Web Usability. It provides cheap access to knowledge that is expensive to obtain. The title is almost a misnomer; Call it a usability guide and give a better idea of its usefulness." Read on for the rest of nut's review. MIDP 2.0 Style Guide for the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition author Cynthia Bloch, Annet Wagner pages 260 pages approx. publisher Addison Wesley rating 8 reviewer nut ISBN 0321198018 summary A comprehensive guide to usability in MIDP 2.0 programming.

MIDP 2.0 is also a fairly new specification -- in fact, the final release only came out in November of last year. Some phone and handheld manufacturers are already supporting it, however. Nokia, for example, have announced support for MIDP 2.0 on their Series 60 devices quite recently, and I would be very surprised if the competition hangs back in the wake of the success of the MIDP 1.0 specification.

A lot of the content in this book can be usefully applied to the many MIDP 1.0 devices. There is in fact a MIDP 1.0 style guide, now available online, but I would still recommend this book for the wealth of extra content that it has.

The MIDP 2.0 Style Guide is a widget-by-widget guide to best-practice programming with the MIDP 2.0 API. The information contained within comes from established design principles, J2ME programming and implementation experience, and usability studies. Usability studies, especially, don't come cheap. Such labour-intensive research is well out of the reach of most individual programmers and small companies, so there is real value for money here.

The layout is very browseable, with most of the sixteen chapters each being a set of recommendations for a specific widget such as a text box or a gauge. The first three chapters (this includes the introduction) are more concerned with defining the goals of the book, the technology it relates to and the bones of a user-interface design process. For the most part, each chapter follows a standard format that is defined in the introduction.

Some of the later chapters cover topics that have less to do with user interface design, such as application installation and management, and the security API. The table of contents is comprehensive, listing not only chapters but two layers of headings within chapters -- useful in a reference book.

There are two target audiences here: J2ME developers and MIDP 2.0 implementors. For the former, it's an excellent resource. For the latter, I would say it was required reading. This is because it ends up defining what amounts to a contract between MIDP implementors and application developers.

For instance, from two successive recommendations on text boxes:

Application Developers
"Use [The NON_PREDICTIVE] modifier in a textbox that has a URL, EMAIL, NUMERIC, or DECIMAL constraint. Email addresses and domain names are not typical words, so turning off predictive text input ..."

And in the next paragraph,

MIDP Implementors
"If the application specifies the NON_PREDICTIVE modifier, allow users to enter one character at a time without any predictive input facilities."

Clearly the first recommendation is only meaningful if the second has been followed already. There are lot of these sort of co-dependent recommendations, covering areas such as default actions for abstract commands, list selection defaults, field constraints, etc.

There is still a lot of slop in the MIDP 2.0 specification. Its scope is, after all, fairly broad -- encompassing forms and form widgets, graphics canvases, game canvases and sprites, command design patterns, messaging and networking, security and application delivery APIs. Besides which, large chunks of the spec are optional, or can be implemented in more than one way. In part this is to preserve backward compatibility with MIDP 1.0, but it also means that your UDP-based streaming video application might work on only some the devices that support the same standard.

This looseness is only to be expected in such a young technology, but it means that books such as this may help to define the standard if people use the recommendations they provide. I would expect many of the recommendations in here to become part of future versions of the MIDP specification.

NOTES:
For more information on J2ME in general, and MIDP in particular, I also recommend Programming Wireless Devices with the Java 2 Platform, Micro edition [2nd ed.] and, of course, there are all the specifications and tutorials at Sun's Java site.

The J2ME Wireless Toolkits versions 1.0.x and 2.0 are good starting points for development as well. Version 2.0 of the wireless toolkit supports MIDP 2.0.

You can purchase MIDP 2.0 Style Guide for the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

gafter writes "An early access prototype implementation of the proposed new J2SE 1.5 language features is available. The prototype includes generics (JSR 14), typesafe enums, varargs, autoboxing, foreach loops, and static import (JSR 201). In other words, all the new language features planned for 1.5 except metadata (JSR 175). The prototype includes full sources for the compiler, written in the extended language. You can download the prototype from java.sun.com. It requires J2SE 1.4.1 and provides some examples of how to use the new language constructs. The prototype includes an experimental type system (variant type parameters) for Generic Java that is being considered for Tiger (1.5) based on a paper by Igarashi and Viroli at ECOOP 2002 . Comments and votes for the new type system are being gathered at bugParade."

gafter writes "An early access prototype implementation of the proposed new J2SE 1.5 language features is available. The prototype includes generics (JSR 14), typesafe enums, varargs, autoboxing, foreach loops, and static import (JSR 201). In other words, all the new language features planned for 1.5 except metadata (JSR 175). The prototype includes full sources for the compiler, written in the extended language. You can download the prototype from java.sun.com. It requires J2SE 1.4.1 and provides some examples of how to use the new language constructs. The prototype includes an experimental type system (variant type parameters) for Generic Java that is being considered for Tiger (1.5) based on a paper by Igarashi and Viroli at ECOOP 2002 . Comments and votes for the new type system are being gathered at bugParade."

gafter writes "An early access prototype implementation of the proposed new J2SE 1.5 language features is available. The prototype includes generics (JSR 14), typesafe enums, varargs, autoboxing, foreach loops, and static import (JSR 201). In other words, all the new language features planned for 1.5 except metadata (JSR 175). The prototype includes full sources for the compiler, written in the extended language. You can download the prototype from java.sun.com. It requires J2SE 1.4.1 and provides some examples of how to use the new language constructs. The prototype includes an experimental type system (variant type parameters) for Generic Java that is being considered for Tiger (1.5) based on a paper by Igarashi and Viroli at ECOOP 2002 . Comments and votes for the new type system are being gathered at bugParade."

SadatChowdhury writes "Aside from templates as already reported in a past slashdot article , a little snooping around revealed the details of the following newly revealed features in the upcoming release of Java 1.5 (codenamed: Tiger) : Autoboxing , Enhanced-For-Loop, Enumerations and Static Imports . Must read for Java fans." In related news: jdkane writes "Sun Microsystems delays a much-anticipated Java specification by three months to comply with guidelines designed to keep Web services interoperable. Says Ralph Galantine, group marketing manager for Java Web services at Sun: "We thought that this change was important for the industry, so that there was no conflict between J2EE 1.4 and the WS-I, "We thought it was worth taking out to the summer." It's very refreshing to hear that a big software company is looking out for the industry, instead of just their own."

SadatChowdhury writes "Aside from templates as already reported in a past slashdot article , a little snooping around revealed the details of the following newly revealed features in the upcoming release of Java 1.5 (codenamed: Tiger) : Autoboxing , Enhanced-For-Loop, Enumerations and Static Imports . Must read for Java fans." In related news: jdkane writes "Sun Microsystems delays a much-anticipated Java specification by three months to comply with guidelines designed to keep Web services interoperable. Says Ralph Galantine, group marketing manager for Java Web services at Sun: "We thought that this change was important for the industry, so that there was no conflict between J2EE 1.4 and the WS-I, "We thought it was worth taking out to the summer." It's very refreshing to hear that a big software company is looking out for the industry, instead of just their own."

SadatChowdhury writes "Aside from templates as already reported in a past slashdot article , a little snooping around revealed the details of the following newly revealed features in the upcoming release of Java 1.5 (codenamed: Tiger) : Autoboxing , Enhanced-For-Loop, Enumerations and Static Imports . Must read for Java fans." In related news: jdkane writes "Sun Microsystems delays a much-anticipated Java specification by three months to comply with guidelines designed to keep Web services interoperable. Says Ralph Galantine, group marketing manager for Java Web services at Sun: "We thought that this change was important for the industry, so that there was no conflict between J2EE 1.4 and the WS-I, "We thought it was worth taking out to the summer." It's very refreshing to hear that a big software company is looking out for the industry, instead of just their own."

SadatChowdhury writes "Aside from templates as already reported in a past slashdot article , a little snooping around revealed the details of the following newly revealed features in the upcoming release of Java 1.5 (codenamed: Tiger) : Autoboxing , Enhanced-For-Loop, Enumerations and Static Imports . Must read for Java fans." In related news: jdkane writes "Sun Microsystems delays a much-anticipated Java specification by three months to comply with guidelines designed to keep Web services interoperable. Says Ralph Galantine, group marketing manager for Java Web services at Sun: "We thought that this change was important for the industry, so that there was no conflict between J2EE 1.4 and the WS-I, "We thought it was worth taking out to the summer." It's very refreshing to hear that a big software company is looking out for the industry, instead of just their own."

SadatChowdhury writes "Aside from templates as already reported in a past slashdot article , a little snooping around revealed the details of the following newly revealed features in the upcoming release of Java 1.5 (codenamed: Tiger) : Autoboxing , Enhanced-For-Loop, Enumerations and Static Imports . Must read for Java fans." In related news: jdkane writes "Sun Microsystems delays a much-anticipated Java specification by three months to comply with guidelines designed to keep Web services interoperable. Says Ralph Galantine, group marketing manager for Java Web services at Sun: "We thought that this change was important for the industry, so that there was no conflict between J2EE 1.4 and the WS-I, "We thought it was worth taking out to the summer." It's very refreshing to hear that a big software company is looking out for the industry, instead of just their own."

The Jakarta group had raised some concerns over the proposed Java Specification Participation Agreement. After some hemming and hawing, it appears that the Java Community Process chair (Sun) has agreed with the ASF's concerns - but IANAL ^? . If you have more info, paste it below.