Have a Nice Steaming Cup of Java 5

wap writes "The language/VM/religion that everyone loves to hate is now serving another cup: Java 1.5 is ready for download. The new features of 1.5 have been discussed here before. I, for one, welcome our new virtual machine overlord. I have been using the release candidate, and startup times are noticeably faster, as is overall performance, and the new features like typesafe collections and static imports are great to have. Let the Java flames begin!"

Comments

Thanks to our supporters

[NoInfo]

"This release was made possible by our world-wide development community.

Oh, yeah, and ridiculously large settlement payments by Microsoft."

Re:Thanks to our supporters

[Anonymous Coward]

I hate to say this, but:
your cut is the fact you can use it for free!

A. Coward

I wait!

[orangeguru]

I wait for the first bug reports ... and version 1.5.1 ...

How long will the MacOS X release take?

[Offwhite98]

After they took all that time to rewrite it with the latest API they claim they can closely track Sun releases. This will be the first big thing since then, so it will be a test of Apple to get it out quickly.

Re:How long will the MacOS X release take?

[Cederic]

>> what is the point in coding in Java if it won't work on the #2 desktop OS?

Perhaps because it will work on the #1..n server OSes?

Passe...

[gowen]

Don't you know, we don't hate Java anymore. These days we all love Java due to its major new feature -- its not C#

Re:Passe...

[Jon Pryor]

My apologies for the horrible look of the code samples. Slashdot won't let me use nice, short lines, as it results in lines which are too short. Gah! Apparently I need ~40 characters per line (average) to get past the @#$% filter... This has to be the most annoying filter I've ever come across; I've spent more time getting past the filter than responding to your question!

Iterators are similar to java.util.Iterator. C# iterators are compiler support for implementing the System.Collections.IEnumerator interface. For example, in Java you'd write:

public class MyIterator implements Iterator {
private String[] hw = {"hello", "world"};
private int pos = 0;
public boolean hasNext () {
if (pos >= 0 && pos < hw.length) return true;
return false;
}
public Object next () {return hw[pos++];}
public void remove () {throw new UnsupportedOperationException ();}
}

public void UseIterator ()
{ Iterator e = new MyIterator ();
while (e.hasNext())
System.out.println (e.next().toString());}

C# iterators make this much easier:

public IEnumerable SayHello ()
{ yield return "hello";
yield return "world";}

public void UseIterator ()
{ foreach (string s in SayHello())
Console.WriteLine (s);}

C# iterators are particularly useful when implementing your own collection objects. Google for them; they're very powerful.

Anonymous Methods are methods without a name, just like Java anonymous classes are classes without a name. Same basic idea, fewer braces. They also act as full closures; while Java requires that all stack variables referenced from an anonymous class be final, C# doesn't require this.

int n = 42;
EventHandler h = delegate {Console.WriteLine ("something happened:" + n);};
h ();

The above example is bad, but you can let your imagination run wild. This is very useful for event handlers.

Partial Types

allow you to split a single class definition across multiple files. This is useful to prevent > 50 KB source files (yech!), and makes it easier to have part of a class machine generated (by a GUI builder) and part hand-written. Some people hate it, others are ambivalent, but it can be handy:

// File a1.cs
partial class Foo {public int a;}

// File a2.cs
partial class Foo {public int b;}

Nullable types are primarily useful for database support in the .NET type system. DB types can be "nullable" -- not present. For reference types, this is easy -- use null. For .NET value types, this isn't possible, as value types can't be null. The solution is to introduce a generic class System.Nullable<T>, which can wrap value types such as int.

The C# compiler adds syntactic sugar to this, to simplify usage:

int? nullable_int = GetMyNullableInt ();
if (nullable_int.HasValue) /* use nullable_int */

Nullable types are more special purpose, but are useful for those who need them.

Ignore the rest of this: it's just garbage to get past Slashdot's wonderful "too few characters per line" problem: lk jfjdlkajdsfl;kja sdfl;kja fjklsafjd l;kj lasjd lkjds fl;kja sdflkajsd lkj afs lk jfjdlkajdsfl;kja sdfl;kja fjklsafjd l;kj lasjd lkjds fl;kja sdflkajsd lkj afs lk jfjdlkajdsfl;kja sdfl;kja the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog l;kajdsfl;kj;lkj l;kjasdilfj l;kjoiewqruq[op 0-9314u75 lkfjx ;lkajdsfmopiac un0p3u5n1-0329u kl 0a9u 3214o5ilj hello out there in tv land! q 09

J2EE --> 1.3.1 still

[tezza]

If you develop apps targeted at Websphere 4, say, they're still 1.3.1 spec.

I look longingly at typed collections to save yet another ClassCastException on anonymous iterators. *sigh* oh well, maybe 6 years from now...

I just got my copy...

[melted keyboard]

Now let the slashdotting commence!

Release notes

[BlurredOne]

If any one is interested in reading the release notes, they can be found at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/relnotes/featu res.html

The new for loop and type safe collections rock

[ShatteredDream]

The new For loop may seem to be just syntactic sugar, but it isn't. It really does make the code look a lot cleaner when you are iterating over a collection or an array. The type safe collections are also very handy--no more class cast exceptions and stuff like that.

It would be nice though if Sun would make Groovy or Jython a standard part of their java distribution. That would definitely make it competitive with .NET

Re:The new for loop and type safe collections rock

[DevCybiko]

The new For loop may seem to be just syntactic sugar, but it isn't. It really does make the code look a lot cleaner isn't that the definition of syntactic sugar?

mod parent down

[hruntrung]

That's not interesting, that's cliche. People have been saying that for years. Let's be honest: virtual machines are where business code is going, and business code (enterprise applications, server side stuff, etc) is the primary focus of Java these days. .NET is a clear indication that this trend is a real one, and that that's where the industry is heading.

No, I don't think you should write ls or grep in Java. However, I'd say that you also shouldn't be writing an invoice processing system in C or C ++.

Swing on OpenGL

[tesmako]

One of the new features of Java 1.5 that has not been mentioned much yet is the OpenGL acceleration of Java2D (which underlies Swing and AWT). Adding the flag

-Dsun.java2d.opengl=true

(or by setting the system property in the program) makes pretty much all Java2D calls go directly into OpenGL.

This does indeed work too, I have played around with it and graphically intensive Swing applications really fly with OpenGL activated (given that your graphics card and drivers are sufficiently bug-free and modern). Read about it here

And yes, it does work under Linux, and Windows and Solaris (and most likely will under OS X, though that is up to Apple to implement).

Even without OpenGL acceleration the Swing responsiveness improvements are very impressive, coupled with the much better both default theme and theme mimicking in 1.5 I'd say it is time to retire the Swing troll.

I love the hate

[Featureless]

You can't hate any language as much as some people hate Java until it's really reached critical mass.

There are two things that make any really big language a target: 1) people start using it for everything, including things its not suited for. 2) junior folks without a lot of compiler or cross-language experiences will cut their teeth on Java, and at that point in one's career it is sometimes considered cool to blame a bad application's flaws on the language it's written in.

Java has plenty of problems. There are brilliant essays written on it; some of them by Sun engineers. But the complaint linked to in story was so bad by comparison, however, I doin't feel offtopic in addressing some points it raised:

there are a thousand "super-efficient" .jar libraries required by a "Hello World" app

No.

it takes 12 objects instantiated in 4 containers to flip a bit in a byte

Oh, I see. You're flipping bytes.

there is the substitution of native performance of compiled code to code compiled "Just Too Late" combined with exceptional memory usage that entails

The VM is more work. Strangely, you will have trouble finding benchmarks that make other comparable high-level languages look way faster than Java on the same _non-user-facing_ application.

As always, code in C, assembler, or another specialized language if you really need to.

The speed thing is well-addressed elsewhere. Enough said for now.

we get the garbage collector which is scientifically fine-tuned to run just when user is expected to interact with the application in most time sensitive manner

People love to bitch about client-side Java. It's as if all the flaws they're used to from other client side systems are fine, because they're used to them, and every foible of Java is worth agonizing over as if it were the worst thing in the world.

I dunno what else to say, but I wrote an enormous graphic-intensive video game in it and it runs fine. And what I did is nothing; somebody cloned the QIII engine to the point where it plays actual Q3A maps (with multiplayer) at respectable framerates.

Once again, someone shows me a shitty client app written by a team of 30 22 year olds in Thailand and claim it's proof that Java sucks. Congratulations.

multiple, insideously incompatible with each other, versions of the so-called "universal" VM

Yes, leaving aside the fact that Microsoft deliberately broke VM compatibility. Not just in one or two big ways. In a lot of little ways. As in on purpose. Great example. Very honest.

There is a giant test suite. Gets better all the time. Reputable VM's pass it. Most of all, though, I just don't run into the cross-VM problem in the first place unless I'm doing 1.1 development for browsers, see above...

We actually abandoned DB2 8.x release because noone could deal with the havoc the DB2 admin tools were causing with various other retarded banking related Java apps.

There we go. The truth outs. You overpaid for a shitty product. Congratulations. You can do that in C or Fortran, too.

Blame the language, though. Don't blame yourselves for picking a bad app.

Oh well, time to have me shot on sight.

Have a nice day.

Okay, I'll Bite (a.k.a. "A Java Flame")

[mattdm]

I work on a minor, highly targetted Linux distribution. I'd love to include Java, and I actually get a lot of requests for it. But, here's an excerpt from the license agreement you'll find if you look to download the software:

B. License to Distribute Software. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement and restrictions and exceptions set forth in the Software README file, including, but not limited to the Java Technology Restrictions of these Supplemental Terms, Sun grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited license without fees to reproduce and distribute the Software, provided that (i) you distribute the Software complete and unmodified and only bundled as part of, and for the sole purpose of running, your Programs, (ii) the Programs add significant and primary functionality to the Software, (iii) you do not distribute additional software intended to replace any component(s) of the Software, (iv) you do not remove or alter any proprietary legends or notices contained in the Software, (v) you only distribute the Software subject to a license agreement that protects Sun's interests consistent with the terms contained in this Agreement, and (vi) you agree to defend and indemnify Sun and its licensors from and

(Yes, it really does just end abruptly without finishing the sentence. That trailing "and" there doesn't lead into the next section; it's just not done. Obviously I'm the only one who bothers to read these things -- *including* the people at Sun. Anyway....)

My wish to give the software to my users fails almost every test....

i: I don't want to distribute it for the "sole purpose of running [my] Programs". I want to distribute it so people can run other people's programs, including possibly their own.

ii: uh, well, actually, my "Programs" don't add any functionality to Java, let alone "significant and primary".

iii: oops, I include gcc, which has a Java compiler. And I'm definitely not going to drop that.

iv: ahh, now this one I can agree with -- fine keep your copyright notices, etc.

v: my distribution as a whole is under the GPL. I'd have to run this by our lawyers, but this looks like it'd conflict by requring additional restrictions (even if I could get special dispensation to deal with the other issues).

vi: I don't really have the resources to defend and indemnify Sun "from and", even if I wanted to, thanks.

And frankly, that's why I wish people would stop writing things in Java. It's a pain to deal with. I want to make everything as slick, integrated, and as easy as possible for my end users. Sun makes that impossible for Java applications. If you want your code to be easily integrated and made available to users like mine -- and really, that's users of any Linux distro targetted more broadly than the super-geek sector -- please don't use Java. If you must, at least design it to work with gcj instead of Sun's virtual machine.

Unless Sun changes the license terms, their Java can never fill the "write once, run anywhere" goal -- but cleanly written source in an open language can.

Re:STUPID MODS

[ElGuapoGolf]

Are you aware that the vast majority of games you play on any phone (except Verizon phones) are written in Java?

Thought not.

Not really.

[BayBlade]

I've opted to reply to this rather than mod.
While I think "write-once, run-anywhere" is a bit of a misnomer, it does actually live up to the hype, imho.

You can't really appreciate it however, until you've spent weeks porting C code between platforms, and a few hours porting similar Java code.

I've had headaches porting perl too (though I must admit its much better now). Things these days are much better for people *trying* to develop cross-platform applications in Java and a number of other languages and APIs, but when it gets sprung on you as a requirement late in the game (latter revisions, new customers, etc) porting a Java app is a godsend.

There's alot of valid reasons to hate any language (I've studied 22 languages and in their own way, I think they all suck), but that particular reason doesn't apply to Java.