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Java Programming Upgrades

Java SE 6 Released 146

Posted by Hemos from the upgrade-maybe dept.
twofish writes "Sun has announced the availability of Java Standard Edition 6 final release. JSE6 now has dynamic language support. It comes pre-delivered with Netscape's Rhino, a Javascript engine, and the scripting project's home page documents many other available scripting languages, including awk, Jelly, Pnuts, Python, Ruby, and Scheme. In addition a lot of work has been done on the libraries and run-time compiler. The JIT has been improved, with better runtime analysis of program characteristics, giving notable performance improvements. Other improvements include better desktop support, improvements in Swing look and feel, Windows Vista support, and better diagnostic support (For example, profilers and debuggers can now attach to a running JVM without specifically using a debugging-capable configuration. For example, if a problem is found at run-time for a production server, a debugger can attach to it without restarting the server). Sun is also offering sixty days of free developer support for JSE 6 through their Developer Services program."
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Java SE 6 Released More

Java SE 6 Released

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  • Awesome (Score:1, Insightful)

    by NaCh0 ( 6124 )
    As if Java and Javascript weren't already confused enough.

    Here goes a whole new round of n00b education.

    Maybe on the plus side javascript will begin to suck less.
  • And here I am in the middle of studying for the Java 5 certification exam while my workplace runs 1.42 and J2EE 1.3.
    • That was kind of my first thought as well. They're coming out with the new versions awfully fast lately.

      Normally this would not be a problem, but because of JVM version dependancy, and because Java quite often changes just a little in important places for each new release, it becomes a bit of a headache.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Tim C ( 15259 )
        They're coming out with the new versions awfully fast lately.

        Are they? Java 5 was released a little over 2 years ago; my mail about it to one of our internal talk groups at work was sent on 30th September 2004 (I found it while sending a similar one about Java 6 a little while ago).

        For what it's worth, my company is still using 1.4 for all new work; hopefully this will inspire a move to at least 1.5...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mfarah ( 231411 )
      And here I am in the middle of studying for the Java 5 certification exam while my workplace runs 1.42 and J2EE 1.3.



      <AOL>
      We are legion.
      </AOL>

    • Re:The Tiger still seems fresh (Score:4, Interesting)

      by bwt ( 68845 ) on Monday December 11, 2006 @02:35PM (#17198436)
      Java 1.5 introduced major syntax enhancements and changes. The three big features of 1.6 are scripting, profiling/debugging, and JIT performance. The nature of these changes makes it much easier to migrate, unless perhaps you had an app that was heavy on BSF (bean scripting framework), in which case you need to migrate.

  • Downloads page still stupid (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PhrostyMcByte ( 589271 ) <phrosty@gmail.com> on Monday December 11, 2006 @10:05AM (#17194338) Homepage

    Kudos on the new release. I'm running Vista, so the support will be nice.

    But as a user, it always amazes me how hard it is to navigate Java's downloads. Assuming non-techies know that "Java Runtime Environment" is what they need to run Java apps, you still have to dig past a JDK and NetBeans link to get to it. I tried walking a relative through downloading the JRE a week ago and it took way longer than it should have.

    • For non-developers, there is page www.java.com - as I was told some time ago, it's purpose was to make it simple for users to download & install JRE (since that's all they need). Maybe the problem is with marketing this page...

    • Re:Downloads page still stupid (Score:5, Interesting)

      by david.given ( 6740 ) <dg@cowlark.com> on Monday December 11, 2006 @10:28AM (#17194656) Homepage Journal

      But as a user, it always amazes me how hard it is to navigate Java's downloads.

      Yeah. Sun's Java web pages quite frankly are horrific beyond all reason. I dread every time I have to go and find something there --- and frequently I just fail. The last thing I tried to get was the Linux wireless toolkit for developing J2ME apps. I managed to find 2.4 (not supported by EclipseME, which I was using.) I managed to find 2.2. But could I find 2.3? Like hell.

      If there's anyone from Sun listening, could you please find whoever is responsible for those web pages and fire them? It's this ghastly maze of long, meaningless product titles, menus that go in loops, undefined terms, endless minutely different product specs, pointless registration systems (which makes me very grateful for BugMeNot)... actually finding the useful information there is it's just too hard. If your web site is so complex and badly designed that people would rather give up than try and figure out, then, I'm afraid, you fail.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Sircus ( 16869 )
      www.java.com [java.com] -> first link you read, "Download now". Two clicks, no NetBeans. java.sun.com is for developers, it's reasonable that they angle it towards them.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by nigelo ( 30096 )
        >it's reasonable that they angle it towards them.

        Agreed, but instead it's angled straight into the Sun, and it's blinding...

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by MojoRilla ( 591502 )
        Except the version of Java on www.java.com is still Java 5 release 9 [java.com]. So it appears Java 6 is only partially released.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Nimey ( 114278 )
          Updates there are slow. That site still had J5r6 until recently and never posted 7 or 8. That may be where the Java auto-updater pulls from because many of our machines stuck with r6 until r9 came out.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Neoncow ( 802085 )
          I expect your average non-developer really doesn't care about the difference.
    • Kudos on the new release. I'm running Vista, so the support will be nice.

      Hasn't Vista always run on java/mumps (well, for the last 5 years anyway)?
      http://neamh.cns.uni.edu/MedInfo/vista.html [uni.edu]

      BBH
    • Just send them to http://www.java.com/ [java.com]. It's dead simple from there.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sulka ( 4250 )
      PEBKAC.

      You're assuming everyone is going to Sun's Java developer website. If you google for "java download" or go to java.com and click the big honking arrow on the top of the page (or whichever way most of the consumers do), you end up here:

      http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp [java.com]

      This page has exactly one download button that points to a download which in turn just happens to be the JRE. I fail to see how you end up on a page with Netbeans if you're looking to download Java and don't automatically start f
  • I'm still waiting for them to release java as opensource
  • What's the best way to get back into using Java? I took a couple of programming classes when it was still Java 1.3/1.4 a few years ago and totally missed the jump to Java 5/6.

  • Bogus Link in website (Score:3, Informative)

    by Fujisawa Sensei ( 207127 ) on Monday December 11, 2006 @10:23AM (#17194568) Journal
    From Sun's Website:
    Java SE 6 is the current major release of the Java SE platform, with full support from NetBeans IDE 5.5. Sun endeavors to foster the highest level of transparency and collaboration on the platform with the Java community through Project JDK 6, resulting in the following key features. Sun's Java Multi-Platform Support, Training, and Certification can provide you the peace of mind to develop and deploy Java solutions with confidence.

    Download the Java SE 6 Release Candidate

    Sun says in one place its current, but links a Release Candidate in the early access site. But if you go to the J2SE Download page: http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp/ [sun.com] There is a link to Java 6.

    • No longer Java TWO SE (Score:2, Informative)

      by gumpish ( 682245 )

      But if you go to the J2SE Download page: http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp/ [sun.com] There is a link to Java 6.

      Please note that it is no longer "J2SE", it's just Java SE. (As per the URL you pasted in your post.)

      Sadly the marketroids still insist on calling it Java SE 6 and not Java SE 1.6 (which it is), but at least today we're better off than with Tiger, which was Java 2 SE 5 (aka 1.5)

  • GPL? (Score:2, Redundant)

    by jZnat ( 793348 ) *
    What happened to Sun releasing Java under the GPL? I'm still getting a click-wrap license agreement here...

    • Re:GPL? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Golthar ( 162696 ) on Monday December 11, 2006 @10:34AM (#17194744)
      See also here [sun.com]

      "Q:
      When will you finish open sourcing the JDK? What is the timeline?
      A:
      We expect to release a fully buildable JDK based almost completely on open-sourced code in the first half of 2007"
    • According to Wikipedia, "The release of the complete sources under GPL is expected in the first quarter of 2007."
    • They say they will be releasing parts over the next few months. The first true open source release will come with Java 7. Sun promised GPL with a linking exception; I'd wait and see whether they actually deliver or whether there are some unforeseen issues with it.

      You'll know it when it happens, because that's when Linux distributions will start including it in their "free" portions. Until then, the announcement is meaningless.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Decaff ( 42676 )
        You'll know it when it happens, because that's when Linux distributions will start including it in their "free" portions. Until then, the announcement is meaningless.

        That is a bit extreme, perhaps?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by idlake ( 850372 )
          No, it's not "extreme". If you want to use Java "for free", you can do so already right now. The purpose of the open source release is to allow integration into FOSS distributions, and to encourage contributions. Until that actually happens, any Java open source license makes no difference.

          Also, just because Sun says that they are going to do it doesn't mean it's going to go through without problems.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Decaff ( 42676 )
            Also, just because Sun says that they are going to do it doesn't mean it's going to go through without problems.

            My point was that it was extreme to say that say that claims that Java will be open sourced are "meaningless".

            If Sun say they are going to do it, they are going to do it, problems or not. Their statement that they are doing this is hardly "meaningless".

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by idlake ( 850372 )
              If Sun say they are going to do it, they are going to do it, problems or not. Their statement that they are doing this is hardly "meaningless".

              They are "meaningless" in that nothing changes for users until they actually deliver.

              And that interpretation is already assuming that they are actually being honest and that no problems crop up. Given what happened with Java standardization and the tricks they have been playing with Solaris, Sun has little credibility when it comes to open source.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Decaff ( 42676 )
                They are "meaningless" in that nothing changes for users until they actually deliver.

                Not true, of course. It means that many developers who want to stick with open source can work with Java knowing that in a matter of months, it will be open. They can change policies now.

                And that interpretation is already assuming that they are actually being honest and that no problems crop up. Given what happened with Java standardization and the tricks they have been playing with Solaris, Sun has little credibility whe

                • Re: (Score:1)

                  by idlake ( 850372 )
                  Not true, of course. It means that many developers who want to stick with open source can work with Java knowing that in a matter of months, it will be open. They can change policies now.

                  Just like they "knew" that when Sun announce they were going for ISO or ECMA standardization, Java would be an ISO or ECMA standard? I don't think so. A press release is not a legally binding contract. Java will be open source once it has been released under that license, not a second sooner.

                  Well, firstly, Solaris is cer

                  • Re: (Score:2)

                    by WebMink ( 258041 )

                    Well, firstly, Solaris is certainly open source,

                    Really? All of it? Or just some of it? Who can even tell.

                    If you are actually interested and not trolling, I'd suggest you join the other 18,000 or so people over on OpenSolaris.org [opensolaris.org] where the source code used to build Solaris is available under a Free license. You'll find a number of other OS distributions based on the same code - the most interesting is probably NextentaOS [gnusolaris.org], which is essentially Debian with the kernel switched.

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by idlake ( 850372 )
                      If you are actually interested and not trolling, I'd suggest you join the other 18,000 or so people over on OpenSolaris.org where the source code used to build Solaris is available under a Free license

                      In fact, according to opensolaris.org, only parts of Solaris have been released in that form.

                      Thank you for illustrating my point again that we can't go by press releases or zealots like you in making platform decisions, neither with Solaris nor with Java.

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by WebMink ( 258041 )

                      Thank you for illustrating my point again that we can't go by press releases or zealots like you in making platform decisions, neither with Solaris nor with Java.

                      OK, I'm now feeding the troll, but I'll not let that smear stand. Sun has been scrupulously clear over exactly what is and is not under open source licenses. There are indeed parts of Solaris that are still encumbered, but that doesn't stop Nexenta and three other distributions building complete distributions, any more than the use of binary drivers by varying GNU/Linux distros invalidates the use of the term "Free" to describe them unless you are a complete radical - oh, sorry, it's me that's the zealot,

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by idlake ( 850372 )
                      OK, I'm now feeding the troll, but I'll not let that smear stand.

                      Yeah, that's the problem: you're a zealot who views companies like people with reputations that can be smeared. Sun is a company, not a person.

                      Sun has been scrupulously clear over exactly what is and is not under open source licenses. [...] There are indeed parts of Solaris that are still encumbered, but that doesn't stop Nexenta and three other distributions building complete distributions,

                      Well, so it's called "OpenSolaris", but it's really

                  • Re: (Score:2)

                    by Decaff ( 42676 )
                    Java will be open source once it has been released under that license, not a second sooner.

                    Well, obviously, unless some is in possession of some sort of time warp technology. But that is not the point. The point was that the announcement was not "meaningless".

                    Really? All of it? Or just some of it? Who can even tell.

                    All you need to do is look.

                    Yes, RMS is saying that after they have done the open source release, then that will be true. And it doesn't mean that anybody has to like Sun anymore than before. Sun

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by idlake ( 850372 )
                      "Really? All of it? Or just some of it? Who can even tell." All you need to do is look.

                      The question was rhetorical. In fact, Solaris has not been released as open source, only parts of it have been. Sun is playing word games again.

                      Therefore, by definition, Sun have already made a substantial contribution.

                      So what? I never said anything different. What I said was that the RMS statement that was quoted didn't apply to the announcement or Sun's previous efforts, it applied to actually open sourcing Java, s

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by Decaff ( 42676 )
                      The question was rhetorical. In fact, Solaris has not been released as open source, only parts of it have been. Sun is playing word games again.

                      No, you are the one playing word games, with petty remarks like that.

                      "Therefore, by definition, Sun have already made a substantial contribution."

                      So what? I never said anything different"

                      yes you did:

                      "Sun has little credibility when it comes to open source"

                      )Maybe it is just me, but I suspect the millions who use products like Open Office may just disagree with you th
    • The source code is here: https://openjdk.dev.java.net/hotspot/ [java.net]

      The binary downloads are going to remain under that clickwrap; only the source code is GPL.

  • about time (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Billly Gates ( 198444 ) on Monday December 11, 2006 @10:28AM (#17194660) Journal
    You can finally have apps that look alot more like win32 or gnome apps without using swt or some other less standard api. Also this release uses some Apple technology with their jdk by offering dynamic class loading. Startups should be alot faster. This and java7 which is already in development should be really exciting. Sun has been putting out alot of java releases recently due to .NET and competition is good.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by asb ( 1909 )

      Sun has been putting out alot of java releases recently due to .NET and competition is good.

      Actually, Sun has always been making a lot of Java releases. The only difference is that now they have to listen to users and implement features that users need. Yes, competition is good.

  • New features with specification references (Score:5, Informative)

    by nyri ( 132206 ) on Monday December 11, 2006 @10:28AM (#17194664)
    The real specification of new features is available at JSR 270 [jcp.org].

    The scripting support is specified at JSR 223 [jcp.org].

    Here are some additional new features:
    • New database connection API, JDBC 4.0: JSR 221 [jcp.org]
    • New version of web services API, JAX-WS 2.0: JSR 224 [jcp.org]


    BTW, why isn't this on the front page? All the fussing about the possible new license was there but not the product publishment itself.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Golthar ( 162696 )
      Java SE 6 is not yet the fully open source version.
      Expect the entire Java SE to be GPL by early 2007
      "http://www.sun.com/software/opensource/java/faq.j sp"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tim C ( 15259 )
      BTW, why isn't this on the front page? All the fussing about the possible new license was there but not the product publishment itself.

      One could almost conclude that slashdot (or at least its editors) care more about the licence that a piece of software is released under, than the software itself.

  • Great! (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Congratulations to all the hard working people at Sun, and those outside who contributed (I'm one of them).

    I tend to get +5 for these kind of posts, so this time I'll post anonymously to prevent karma wh:

    As usual, InfoQ [infoq.com] has a nice writeup with good links.
    Sun has a confusing number of portal sites for news and communities, but the two most lively ones are probably java.net [java.net] and Planet JDK [planetjdk.org].

    Remember that Java 6 is not GPL, the decision to go GPL came too late in the development phase, only JDK7 is GPL. But you

    • Re:Is JBoss compatible with it? (Score:4, Informative)

      by jonabbey ( 2498 ) * <jonabbey@ganymeta.org> on Monday December 11, 2006 @12:31PM (#17196592) Homepage

      I'm sure that it is. Java's backwards compatibility has always been pretty spectacular. They've got millions of lines of unit-test code that they test new releases against, in addition to major applications which get explicit testing. JBoss is about as major an application as you'll find.

      • Now I don't use Java in an enterprise environment, so I can't really compare, but it seems to me that backward compatibility is one area where Java shines against .net/C#

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by wzzzzrd ( 886091 )
      It is, I'm using the JDK6 (beta) for development and JRE5 for deployment on the production machine together with JBoss4, meaning that even code compiled with JDK6 runs fine in a JRE5 VM.

  • Good release, but real fun stuff in Java 7 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by caseih ( 160668 ) on Monday December 11, 2006 @02:15PM (#17198132)
    Java 6 has made great strides in many areas, including speed, Swing LAF, etc. It now uses GTK theme engines (works with all themes) to allow swing apps to look more like GTK apps. The imitation is still very imperfect, but it's much improved over the old, crappy, Metal look. I believe generics have been improved some in 6, and I think, if I recall correctly, 6 marks the beginning of non-backwards compatible changes to the JVM itself to pave the way for a lot of exciting new features in Java 7, the most notable will the inclusion (finally) of delegates, making GUI event programming a lot cleaner. It's possible that with Java 7 finally on feature parity with .NET, someone could write a .NET to JVM translator, such as the reverse of ikvm, to allow C# code to be executed on a clean, GPLd Java stack. I still prefer C# to Java at this point, and it would be nice to have the difference between the two stacks (technologically anyway) be insignificant, hopefully helping developers who would choose .NET choose the now safer Java alternative. .NET really did get a jump on Java technologically up until now. It's better in several ways including the generics model, delegates, and being able to support a number of languages including python (jpython for JVM seems to be stalled). Java 7 will start to change all that. Sun's really proved they are listening to the community. Either that or .NET really got them scared.
  • If I can run a dialect of Lisp with all the speed of the JVM, then I'm sold.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by curunir ( 98273 ) *
      If all you want is to run LISP with Java's speed, JDK 1.6 doesn't really change anything for you. There have been LISP implemntations (here are a couple [virtual-void.net] of options [armedbear.org]) for some time now.

      What JSR-223 [java.net] means is that it's now possible to integrate scripting languages into Java programs without having to use a project-specific API. As far as I can tell, the only LISP(ish) implementation that supports JSR-223 is SISC [sourceforge.net]. This means that you can write your Java in such a way that you can very simply switch scripting
      • Then I'm not sold.

        I remember about SISC, the pool of stack frames and all. Impressive indeed, very nice ideas there. But nothing specific to complete dynamic languages in the JVM, AFAIK it adds dynamic classes, but everything is NOT a class in a real program.
  • What I don't see mentioned here is a significant performance improvement that is especially pronounced in FP-math intensive code. Take a look at some of the timings obtained with JatMark [wfmh.org.pl] benchmark - typically it finishes in half the time (results in seconds):
    • 206 - Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz)/DDR2@667Mhz/Linux 2.6.18.3 #5 SMP/Sun JDK 1.6.0-rc-b104
    • 223 - Opteron 275 2.2GHz/Linux 2.6.11.12-grsec/Sun JDK 1.6.0-beta-b59g
    • 349 - Pentium M 730 (1.6Ghz)/DDR2@400Mhz/Linux 2.6.15-cK1/Sun JDK 1.6.0-beta-b59g
    • 401 - Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz)/DDR2@667Mhz/Linux 2.6.18.3 #5 SMP/Sun JDK 1.5.0_05-b05
    • 408 - Opteron 275 2.2GHz/Linux 2.6.11.12-grsec/Sun JDK 1.5.0_01-b08
    • 415 - Opteron 250 2.4GHz (dual)/Linux 2.6.8/Sun JDK 1.5.0-b63
    • 596 - Pentium M 730 (1.6Ghz)/DDR2@400Mhz/Linux 2.6.15-cK1/Sun JDK 1.5.0_06-b05
    Full results table [wfmh.org.pl].
  • No no, not a flame at one being better than the other.

    Just pointing out...since Java came out and Microsoft was kicked out of the field, having to come up with its own "copy", things have gotten quite interesting for developers...

    You have Java and .NET fighting it out, seeing which can pump out the most solid platform, and it just improves on both side at lightning speed... we had .NET 3.0 recently (Workflow foundation ::DROOLS::) and now this. Its great!

    At the same time, the other languages are also forced
  • Why didn't this make the front page? It's certainly a far more interesting thing for nerds than an article about bloggers.
  • "I noticed it last night, before it got slashdotted."

    Its the first time I've truly scooped slashdot! Woohoo!

    Well the online api doc's kept pointing to version 6 while I was looking for version 5.

    =)

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