Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

New Apache Tomcat Branch 5.5 Released

Posted by michael on from the now-ever-so-slightly-faster dept.

darthcamaro writes "A good week for Apache Tomcat users - an incremental update to the latest stable version - 5.028 - and a new branch - Apache Tomcat 5.5. According to a story running on internetnews.com, the most notable features include the move to Eclipse from SUN's SDK, which according to one Tomcat user quoted in the story means that Tomcat will be faster than ever before. It's kinda funny that the way to make Java run faster is to take Sun out of the equation..."

29 comments

  1. Tomcat is amazing by BoomerSooner · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've been using it since around 99 or 2000 (bad memory) while trying to learn how to use jsp to migrate our platform from a purely servlet/corba based architecture (very complicated). At the time I was amazed at the simplicity of using such a robust tool. Since that time I have become an even larger fan.

    FYI Tomcat is the webserver in OS X Server along with apache.

    1. Re:Tomcat is amazing by weeksie · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I know this will come off as a bit trollish but calling a J2EE app server a great tool sounds a bit like Stockholm Syndrome to me. I imagine it was great compared to stock servlets and corba *shiver*.
      I like Tomcat and have developed several apps with it, however simple and robust are not terms I would grace it with.

    2. Re:Tomcat is amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      calling a J2EE app server a great tool sounds a bit like Stockholm Syndrome to me.

      Tomcat is not a J2EE app server, though.

  2. Pedantic by arthurs_sidekick · · Score: 5, Informative

    The two main changes are (1) making sure it works with the upcoming JDK 5.0 (formerly 1.5) release and (2) shipping the Eclipse compiler *for compiling JSPs*. Neither of these moves are strikingly fundamental, although the second one is kind of interesting.

    --
    "Oh, I hope he doesn't give us halyatchkies," said Heinrich.
    1. Re:Pedantic by aled · · Score: 1

      It seems a little risky upgrade, one have to go with the possible bugs in a new Tomcat version as well as a rather heavy upgrade on Java versión with its own bugs.

      --

      "I think this line is mostly filler"
    2. Re:Pedantic by funkman · · Score: 1

      The article is wrong. Tomcat 5.5 does not depend on JDK5.0. It uses classes which are distributed by JDK 5.0 by default. But Tomcat 5.5 works fine with JDK 1.4 and the compat libraries.

  3. eclipse is an sdk? by raffe · · Score: 1

    "the most notable features include the move to Eclipse from SUN's SDK"

    Can someone clarify this???

    1. Re:eclipse is an sdk? by Hard_Code · · Score: 4, Informative

      RTFA

      They are moving to eclipe's java development tools which include a compiler which is faster than the standard Sun compiler (at the moment I presume). The compiler is used for compiling JSPs.

      --

      It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
    2. Re:eclipse is an sdk? by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

      The question is, is Eclipse's compiler faster or slower than Jikes, which everyone has been using with Tomcat for years?

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
  4. Change is for JSP compilation ... by jlrobins_uncc · · Score: 5, Informative

    Seems they now default to using the java compiler shipped with Eclipse instead of the com.sun.* compiler which 'javac' uses. So, no tools.jar dependency -- can run on straight sun JRE, not SDK.

    This only effects JSP (re)compilation.

    This could have been made more clear by the submitter. But that wouldn't do, would it?

    1. Re:Change is for JSP compilation ... by JavaRob · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Exactly -- and I'd also point out that no large site that I know of would be affected by this performance-wise, though faster compilation of JSPs will be nice for development. How often do you make a JSP change that will be seen first by the end user?

      JSPs can be easily precompiled, or just hit by the developer before linking them on the site, to force compilation. Even if compilation is faster than it was, that doesn't mean it's as fast as when the user hits a page that's already been compiled.

      Either way, Tomcat is a great app -- funny that it started as just a simple "reference" implementation of the servlet/JSP APIs....

    2. Re:Change is for JSP compilation ... by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 2, Informative

      can run on straight sun JRE, not SDK.

      This is good news. It was difficult to bundle Tomcat previously because you Sun does not allow you to redistribute the SDK, but you could redistribute pieces of the JDK like javac, or tools.jar (I think they improved this situation in 1.4.2).

      You would need to copy tools.jar or javac from the SDK to the JRE, repackage the JRE, modify the Tomcat startup script to use tools.jar and not depend on bin/jdb (which was not Redistributable).

      Erg...

      --
      "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    3. Re:Change is for JSP compilation ... by mcpres · · Score: 1

      The thing is that the Eclipse compiler could potentially improve the performace even with pre-compiled pages. If the compiler performace better optimizations on the java byte-code generated. Also if your site uses static includes, that frequently change, this would be a big improvement too.

    4. Re:Change is for JSP compilation ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also if your site uses static includes, that frequently change, this would be a big improvement too.

      Static includes that frequently change? In that case, wouldn't one simply not use static includes?

    5. Re:Change is for JSP compilation ... by JavaRob · · Score: 1

      If the compiler performace better optimizations on the java byte-code generated.

      That's a bigger "if" than you might think. I'm not ruling it out until someone checks in with some stats... but most Java optimizations happen at runtime (since that's where it's turned into actual machine code).

      Obviously most Java compilers do dead code removal, constant folding, inlining, etc., but from what I understand there aren't any huge differences, and javac -O is pretty good.

      Anyone with more info?

    6. Re:Change is for JSP compilation ... by jrumney · · Score: 2, Informative
      It was difficult to bundle Tomcat previously because you Sun does not allow you to redistribute the SDK

      It has always been a one line change in server.xml to configure Tomcat to use jikes instead of tools.jar for compiling JSPs. I wouldn't call that difficult.

    7. Re:Change is for JSP compilation ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      It has always been a one line change in server.xml to configure Tomcat to use jikes instead of tools.jar for compiling JSPs. I wouldn't call that difficult.

      But would you call it difficult for a cocksucker? We are talking about Stefan, after all.

    8. Re:Change is for JSP compilation ... by funkman · · Score: 1

      Sorry, you still need tools.jar.

    9. Re:Change is for JSP compilation ... by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 1

      I have my very own personal troll! What an honor!

      --
      "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
  5. amoung other things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    the stock javac shipped with the JDK has had some issues. In Tomcat 4, they switched to use ANT to create a separate process, so that it wouldn't cause a memory leak. the earlier version use javac within the same JVM, so it would cause a memory leak. JDT is a solid tool and works better, so it makes a lot of sense.

  6. Will engineers at Sun be pushed a little bit by cyfer2000 · · Score: 1

    to work harder?

    --
    There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
    1. Re:Will engineers at Sun be pushed a little bit by aled · · Score: 1

      Why would they? Sun Java compiler (javac) is the standard compiler but there are others. Sun doesn't make money on javac because is freely downloadable. You can still use javac with Tomcat 5.5 if you want. There are yet others Java compilers around. Is just that Sun doesn't allow others to redistribute JSDK. Tomcat guys decided to include just another compiler to save the hasle, which incidentally may have some enhancements over plain javac.

      --

      "I think this line is mostly filler"
  7. Why they're including the Eclipse compiler by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cause that way, you no longer require a whole JDK. At 95M for the JDK vs. 60 for the JRE (1.4.2_05 on linux), that's some space savings.

  8. I RTFA but... by CaptainPinko · · Score: 1
    "faster than the standard Sun compiler"

    Now is that faster as in .java->.class time or faster in the sense that bytecode (aka "binaries") are faster (eg. more effeceint better optimized code path*)?

    *I have no idea how much the Java standard limits this or not.

    --
    Your CPU is not doing anything else, at least do something.
    1. Re:I RTFA but... by jimbolaya · · Score: 1
      Faster as in .java -> .class time. In fact, the article does prett much say this; it's faster at compiling JSPs (which is a two step process: JSP -> .java -> .class), but once all your JSPs are compiled, and if they do not change, the use of Eclipse's tools is not an advantage.

      Again, compiling is faster, not runtime.

      --

      There ain't no rules here; we're trying to accomplish something.

  9. NOT Stable yet. by madth3 · · Score: 1

    It's important to note that:

    "This is the first release of the new Tomcat 5.5 branch, and as such it is not yet stable. We expect significant additional changes, including possible changes to packaging, dependencies, and Tomcat internal APIs, before the first 5.5 stable release is made."
    From http://jakarta.apache.org/site/news/news-2004-2ndH alf.html#20040831.1
  10. What does this say about Netbeans? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Apache Tomcat folks and Sun work very closely together. I wonder if Sun is happy about Tomcat using Eclipse tools?

  11. Its not taking Sun out of the equation by Decaff · · Score: 1

    It's kinda funny that the way to make Java run faster is to take Sun out of the equation...

    The author should have read the release notes from tomcat. Its not taking Sun out of the equation - its exactly the reverse: To quote:

    "Tomcat 5.5 is designed to run on J2SE 5.0 and later"

    There is nothing anti-Sun about this at all. What they have done is to include the Eclipse JDT compiler, to speed the compilation of JSP pages, but tomcat can also use the Javac in any JDK you have installed.

    The bundling of the JDT compiler allows Tomcat to be used if you only have a Java Runtime installed, and not the full developer's kit.

    So, this is nothing about dropping Sun, and nothing about making Java faster. How wrong can an article be?