Java 5 RC Available, Gold Targeted for this Month

Trevor Leach writes "Sun's Java 5 download page is now serving up J2SE 5.0 RC. There are loads of productivity enhancements in this release, code named 'Tiger,' including generics, enums, autoboxing of primitive types, and metadata. Additionally, the Java Developer's Journal qoutes Sun's Graham Hamilton, chief technologist of Java Software, as specifying September 30 as Tiger's target release date."

Comments

Re:Okay, nice, but...

[Magnus Reftel]

mean, you can't possibly know all that is J2EE properly. But what should one concentrate on, and roughly in what order?

The only part of J2EE I've actually used my self as a Java programmer is the parts related to servlets. Since you say you use PHP, I take it you're not new to web projects. I'd recommend that you start there - download Tomcat, and learn JSP with taglibs & scriptlets. Then, gradualy move to a three-layer acrhitecture with chaining servlets and JSP for generating HTML only. (I learned PHP by rewriting my pet Servlet project in PHP, maybe the reverse could work for you?)

Ignore Java 5 for now - it usually takes quite a while for new Java versions to get used in production, especially with J2EE, where you pretty much have to wait for app servers to support new versions before you can even cosider using them yourself.

J2EE and how to go about learning it.

[tod_miller]

I definately suggest putting J2EE on the back burner! Its like trying to swim in the deep end, with sharks, man-o-wars, rusty WW2 sea mines, the Southhampton Elderly Aquarobics class, toddler swimming lessons and a huge inflatable Barney (TM).

Start with Java SE, definately play with Swing, then move onto servlet and JSP, keeping it simple, I suggest using the java.sun.com leanring trails or some O'Reilly books.

Donwload Tomcat 5... when you are good at that, do some JSTL in the mix, work on a struts application using just a dto layer, then think about J2EE, which is all that plus an EJB container (lookup EJB's) and lots of knowledge of design patterns, like fast lane readers, session facades (limiting network overheads etc) and then you can call yourself a J2EE programmer.

"It's when things like this go through your mind that you wish you'd just be interested in something like plumbing as a career option, instead of programming. At least you'd always have work."

I would have, but I was told my ass-cleavage was too good and I could get kicked out of the union... shame really.

Plumbers seem to have ace jobs in all the porn movies I have seen, but I haven't the face for a handlebar moustache.

Re:One things Java needs...

[ja]

I have NOT looked at RC 5, but hope they have either sped up SWING...

Linux and Solaris users, and new in beta2, Windows users, who have the latest OpenGL drivers and select graphic cards can get native hardware acceleration from Java2D using the following runtime property:

java -Dsun.java2d.opengl=true -jar Java2D.jar

mvh // Jens M Andreasen

Re:Okay, nice, but...

[dkf]

I never did find out what an EJB is.

EJB is a scheme for writing complex business logic in Java. Basically you write the code that does the interesting bits yourself, and then deploy the code into an application called an EJB container which handles most of the boring difficult bits like database integration, transaction management, user authentication and authorization, load balancing, multi-protocol serialization, object discovery, etc.

Re:One things Java needs...

[heffel]

I downloaded RC 5 last night, and ran the
SwingSetDemo. I noticed the GTK look and feel looks better than with JDK 1.4, it (more or less) uses the GTK theme you are using. I did notice a couple of bugs, sliders didn't display correctly, and the InternalFrames don't show up (the console displays a NullPointerException).

I like the Swing API, but I don't like the emulated Look and Feel. I like the native look and feel of SWT, but I don't like the API. The best solution for someone like me is to use SwingWT.

It is a wrapper around SWT, using the Swing API, porting existing Swing code to SwingWT is trivial,
just replace java.awt.* with swingwt.* and javax.swing.* with swingwtx.swing.* and you are done.

More useful links

[prat393]

If you feel like a more in-detail look at 1.5, these documents might be useful:

• J2SE 5 New Features
• JDK 5.0 Release Notes (warning: not updated for the release candidate)

Re:There's one feature I can't WAIT to start using

[Ahe]

We're looking into it: 5072831