Slashdot Mirror
Java2 SDK v. 1.4 Released
pangloss writes: "Yay: XML, built-in Perl-ish regex, jdbc 3.0, asserts, IPv6, lots of other goodies. Release notes and incompatibilities. And I think this means I can use my wheel-mouse in NetBeans without that extra module ;) Download it here." WilsonSD adds: "There are many cool new features including a New I/O package, an Assert Facility and enhanced performance." Some other random Java notes: O'Reilly has an essay about why you won't see any open source J2EE implementations, and Kodak has filed a patent-infringement claim against Sun regarding Java.
The 4 GB address space limit has become a severe limit on Java bloat. It's good to see that Sun finally addresses this problem.
This is in regard to the kodak suit.
What I find especially bothersome is the the fact that Koday (supposedly) had these patents. They did nothing with them. Sun produced a product, hyped it, sold it, improved it and put in millions of dollars and man hours into it.
Kodak then comes in and demands money after the fact when they made no attempt to actually do anything.
I think that's crazy. Why punish the people who got off their asses and did something especially if the punisher was too lazy or stupid to actually make use of their idea.
This isn't just about sun and kodak either. Who was suing palm recently? Same thing.
Sit on your ass doing nothing, wait for somebody else to do all the work. Then sue them and retire in the bahamas. It's the american way I guess. Sure beats working.
War is necrophilia.
Sun certification does not have any effect on JBoss's functionality. As I see it, it is just a marketing matter, being able to say "This is a Sun certified J2EE App Server", so that whoever makes the decision on using it (and mainly commercial organisations) can be confident that it really does what it is supposed to do.
btw, as it is a server, it does not run on the client.
The platform is not the language.
Java is good partly because of its pragmatic syntax (C++ish with some sugar added, some sugar taken away), but mostly it's good because of its excellent class library.
Though I haven't written anything serious for a year or so due to a job switch, I used to write large-scale multithreaded network servers, where somthing like three to four hundred threads could be running at any given moment inside the server. Java's class library made this really quite easy, and it's syntax is pleasant enough to work with.
Cheers,
Ian
The article says nothing about the nature of
the supposedly infringed patents. Here's their
titles:
US05206951
Integration of data between typed objects by mutual, direct invocation between object managers corresponding to object types
US05421012
Multitasking computer system for integrating the operation of different application programs which manipulate data objects of different types
US05226161
Integration of data between typed data structures by mutual direct invocation between data managers corresponding to data types
???
Look at the bottom of the classpath page for a list of open source VMs that work with classpath (a free core (i.e., java.* and a few others) class library). All works in progress. I expect that mono and/or portable.net will quickly outpace free java projects. The JDK is a case where the availability of good enough gratis software has seriously hampered the momentum of libre competition. Netscape 4.x is another such case.
They did break some stuff with legacy code. If you ever named a class 'URI' your code will now fail to compile because they put this class in the java.net package which everyone imports anyway.
If you have a foo.bar.URI class, and the core has a java.net.URI class, you can still use yours.
You can:
import java.net.*;
import foo.bar.URI;
Existing code does not need to be recompiled, since bytecode always explicitly names classes always, but existing code does potentially need to be fixed if recompiled, as the default results of the imports will change. This is a pretty small and common occurrence with a new API set.
[
Okay, I can't take this any more - Java is not slow or buggy and can produce applications that are indistinguishable from C/C++ applications. The proof of this is simple - rewind the clock back a year to MacWorld where WorldBook Encyclopedia was demoed as part of the keynote with everyone watching and they were all impressed. Months later I was informed by the "head Java dude" at Apple on his Australian tour that WorldBook is completely written in Java - but noone knew.
Most people think that Java is slow, buggy and doesn't look platform native because they assume that anything that is fast, stable and looks and feels platform native wasn't written in Java. It's even cooler though, because the "write once, run everywhere" of Java actually works if you write good code). Sure there are some things that Java can't do that you need native code modules to handle but that facility is available.
The worst thing is that young programmers are led to think that Sun's code is actually *good* which spreads their poor, inefficient form to the next generations.
Java's not perfect, but I seriously don't think that it's Java that corrupts young programmers. You can write good code in almost any language - I see an awful lot of really bad Java code written by C programmers but I'm not about to claim that C is corrupting old programmers.
Regarding the logging and regex packages: Just because a package is less functional does not mean that it is intrinsically bad. If the package is suitable for the majority of uses by the majority of developers, then it's probably OK - after all, it's easier for someone to learn a small package rather than a large one. If you require something more specific, then you are still free to use the packages you metnioned. The JDK logging and regex packages ADD choice - surely this is a "good thing"?
.NET and the multilanguage capabilities. Neither are everything they are cracked up to be. Only the CLR and a "core" set of C# classes are open - everything else (i.e. the really useful bits that everyone needs) are not. My question - do you trust Microsoft to open these up?
:-) that Java should be Open Source / Standardised. I, like many Java developers have no instrinsic problem with this. However, there is the issue of cross-platform portability:
.Net's) current functionality.
Please take a close look at both the openess of
You mention (must have seen this somewhere before on Slashdot
Many people complained when Sun would release a JDK for Windows and Solaris that it didn't have one of Linux. Then they complained when a Linux JDK was created that it didn't come out at the same time. Now with Sun releasing all 3 JDK simeltaneously (and the likes of Apple and IBM not usually far behind), consider this:
How likely do you think this situation would be if the JCP (or something like it) was not in place? Do you really think you would be saying "As far as that... it runs GREAT on Linux. Probably the most SOLID VM I have ever run." if Java was Open Source?
Maybe it would be:
"Well the Linux version is pretty good - can't use the xyz library because that's Windows only and it will probably be out of beta only 6 months after the Windows version but hey - it's Open Source! That make me FEEL GOOD!"
What I would LOVE is to see Java open sources while ensuring that it remains cross-platform. While some would claim that open source would guantee that, it is not provable. Sun believes that there is too much risk. While you may not, agree with that you have Java that is:
a) free (as in beer)
b) you can read the source code the the whole API
c) you can change (but not distribute) the source
d) works on all major plaforms (including FreeBSD now BTW)
For me, and many other Java developers, these still place it far ahead of anything Microsoft is doing - and while Mono iterests me, its going to be a LONG time before it can match Java's (or even
My favourite new feature is that lightweight components can now be run in headless mode - see
C ha nges.html#headless
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/docs/guide/awt/AWT
You have to set a property to true:
-Djava.awt.headless=true
as a switch when running the VM for example. Then you can generate server-side graphics on Unix without having to run XVfb. This has been an annoyance for some time, as you had to have different deployment rules depending on your target OS, as NT always has a graphical environment taking up resources whether you want it or not, so it wasn't an issue there.
The upshot is that you can now use java.awt.Image.BufferedImage as an image source in servlets that generate dynamic images, instead of java.awt.Frame, which always seemed wrong. It uses less resources too, as it doesn't have to do a context-switch to your X server to create images!
Hey, there are lots of great new features in this new release, but that is the first one that made life easier for me.
I use Java at work and I had to beat 5 fucking team leads with a crow-bar to convince them to move to Java 1.2. Now they all run the other way when they see me coming -- it's a lot harder to get near them with a crow-bar. By the time my company gets done with its final focus meeting to decide that moving to 1.4's a good idea, Sun will be releasing Java 2.4 (With telepathic user interface code.) If I get all used to how great Java 1.4 is, work will suck more, and it already sucks so much that light can't escape.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
There is already a clean room, open source (BSD License) implementation of the JCE. It's called Cryptix, and simply put is one of the best libraries ever written for Java.
I don't trust black box cryptography... especially when Sun goes the extra mile to obfuscate their default implementation of the JCE crypto modules.
I fail to see how a declaration "String str = null" is any safer than a declaration "String str".
You've used this serveral times as an example. You're right, assigning a string to null is not safer than leaving it uninitialized. However, that just gets around the 'uninitialized variable' error from the compiler. You should initialize it with something meaningful, or at least "". That would be more safe, and would be what the compiler wants you to do. This error has saved my butt more times than I care to remember, so don't knock it.
If you want to use variable arguments, pass in a vector or a list. There are ways to make java do what you want to do, they might not be like those in C or C++.
"This is not a company that appears to be bothered by ethical boundaries."
Attorney General Mike Hatch on Microsoft
The story should have read "no LICENSED open source J2EE implementations". There are OS J2EE app servers (JBoss), and in fact they are quite good... the problem (as stated in the article) is that it's hella expensive to get the official seal of J2EE. That doesn't mean it doesn't work!
.NET is better, you have to ask how good an open .NET server you're going to be able to build without ASP.NET or Windows Forms. Neither of those are part of the current ECMA submissions, though as stated in the .NET article yesterday they are expected to be submitted at some point...
.NET (at least under windows). It will be interesting to see if .NET app development is nearly as annoying as MFC was (I doubt it will be).
Now if you think
At the moment J2EE has gone through a lot of refinement, and I think makes a pretty good platform for server side development. I think desktop code is still up for grabs by either Jvaa or
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley