Sun's posted an early access release of the J2EE Client Access Services COM Bridge on the Java Developer Connection (registration required). This enables Windows developers to create native client applications that access Enterprise JavaBeans components deployed on a J2EE application server.
As you've probably already heard, yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed the trial court's order to break Microsoft into two companies. However, it upheld Jackson's ruling that Microsoft was a monopoly that had abused its position, and sent the case back to a different judge for a possibly different remedy.
Sun's posted an early access release of the Java API for XML Messaging 1.0 on the Java Developer Connection (registration required). This is a SOAP API.
Sun's posted the second early access release of the J2ME Wireless Toolkit 1.0.2 on the Java Developer Connection (registration required). This release adds:
Sun's posted version 0.92 of the Java API for XML Messaging (JAXM) Specification. (PDF format as usual.) This is basically a Java API for SOAP 1.1.
The Jakarta Apache Project has posted the fourth milestone release of Tomcat 3.3. Tomcat is an open source servlet engine for the Apache web server. Version 3.3 supports version 2.2 of the Java servlet API and version 1.1 of Java Server Pages. Milestone 4 fixes various bugs found in Milestone 3, primarily in the area of decoding. It also begins the first round of jasper refactoring, known as Jasper34, that is going on in jakarta-tomcat-jasper.
IBM's alphaWorks has released ManPlatoSync for Java, a "platform-neutral data synchronization solution for The IBM WorkPad and other Palm and Palm-compatible handheld computers."
IBM's alphaWorks has posted a new version of Regex for Java that supports the syntax of the final W3C Recommendation of XML Schema Datatypes, adds an option to report non-matching positions, and fixxes various bugs.
Eric Albert's posted BrowserLauncher 1.4b1, a source code based Java class that can launch the user's default web browser, cross-platform, without the use of the Java Native Interface (JNI).
James Strachan's posted dom4j 0.5. dom4j is an open source library for working with XML, XPath and XSLT on the Java platform using the Java Collections Framework with full integration with DOM, SAX and JAXP. This release fixes assorted bugs and adds:
NodeComparator for comparing documents by value
DocumentHelper.parseText( String );Branch.normalize() method for normalizing Text nodes
Element author = element.addElement( "author" )
.addAttribute( "name", "James" )
.addAttribute( "location", "UK" )
.addText( "James Strachan" );
Nokia has submitted Java Specification Request (JSR) 135, Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) Multimedia API to the Java Community Process (JCP).
Sun has submitted JSR 136 Java Technology for Service Providers to the JCP. According to the proposal, "Over 20 JSRs targeted at next generation service provider networks are being specified by the Java community. This specification will consist of a set to documents that will correlate these JSRs, document how these JSRs fit together within end-to-end service provide networks, and introduce service provider developers to the Java APIs targeted at emerging service provider networks."
Oracle has submitted JSR 138 Dynamic Monitoring Service to the JCP. This proposes an API for instrumenting and subsequently monitoring Java programs. This can supplement the Java Logging and Management APIs. Commennts are due by June 25, 2001.
The Public Review Draft of JSR-43 Java Telephony API (JTAPI) 1.4 Specification is now available. Comments are due by July 18, 2001.
Hughes Software Systems has submitted JSR-137 JAIN 3G MAP Specification to the Java Community Process. This proposes to develop the JAIN 3G MAP APIs to enable mobile applications in the 3G domain to talk to each other. Comments are due by June 25, 2001.
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has released the GNU Compiler Collection Version 3.0. As well as version 3.0 of the popular gccc C/C++/Objective-C compiler and the g77 Fortran compiler, this release includes a native-code compiler for Java. The GNU Compiler for the Java language (GCJ) includes a run-time library containing most common non-GUI Java classes, a bytecode interpreter, and the Boehm conservative garbage collector. GCJ can compile Java source or Java bytecodes to either native code or Java class files, and supports native methods written in either the standard JNI or the more efficient and convenient CNI.
Brian R. Gilstrap's Lumberjack, now in beta, is an open source implementation of the new logging API specified in JSR 47. Java 1.2 or later is required.
Christopher Clemens Lee has released version 14.31 of
JavaNCSS, a
GPL'd source measurement suite for
Java. It can tell you how many
"Non Commenting Source Statements" (NCSS) there are in your code as well as
calculating the
"Cyclomatic Complexity Number (McCabe metric)".
This release can output XML and recognizes the
strictfp keyword introduced in Java 1.2.
Jeks is a closed source spreadsheet application written in Java and based on the Swing JTable component. This is the first beta release. Jeks includes JeksParser, a Java library that parses, compiles and computes expressions and functions.
Greg Guerin's posted the third beta of his open source MacBinary Toolkit 2 for Java for working with dual fork Macintosh files. This release fixes a few bugs.
Paul Cody Johnston posted an alpha of the GPL'd HotSwap class library. HotSwap allows you to update the implementation of an object at runtime.
Version 1.1.4 of the open source BlueJ integrated development environment (IDE) has been released. This IDE has a particular focus on teaching and educational environments.
IBM's alphaWorks has updated their Java Developer Kit 1.3 for Linux on Itanium. It now supports glibc 2.2, RedHat 7.1, and and TurboLinux 7.
Sun's posted a beta of the J2EE IDE Toolkit Software 2.0 on the Java Developer Connection (registration required). This integrates Forte for Java, Community Edition 2.0 with the J2EE 1.3 Deployment Tool to provide a more user-friendly application development environment for the J2EE SDK. Solaris/SPARC, Windows NT/2000, and Red Hat Linux are supported.
Python 2.0.1c1 is a bug fix release of Python whose license is now fully compatible with the GPL.
Sun's posted the second beta of the Java 2 Software Development Kit Enterprise Edition 1.3 on the Java Developer Connection (registration required).
BareBones has released version 6.1.1 of the BBEdit Lite text editor to fix a few bugs.
Greg Guerin's posted the second beta of his open source MacBinary Toolkit 2 for Java for working with dual fork Macintosh files. This release adds:
IBM's updated the DirectDom Developer Kit for IE to support the Adobe SVG Viewer 2.0 and frames. DirectDOM is a browser plug-in that enables applets to build GUIs by manipulating documents using the browser's Document Object Model (DOM).
Sun's posted the proposed final draft of JSR-041 A Simple Assertion Facility for the Java Programming Language v1.4 specification to the Java Community Process (JCP). As ususal, this is PDF format only. (I'd like to propose a new rule in the JCP that all specifications must be made available in plain-vanilla HTML which is considered normative.)
IBM's alphaWorks has posted an updated Document Rendering Engine (DRE). This is a Java class library that can be used to define and render a Document. A Document is comprised of a collection of elements, where elements are such things as text, lists, tables, images, etc. The currently rendered output formats in the DRE are PDF and HTML. This release adds page numbering, a sample servlet for creating PDF on the fly, underlining, strikeout and numerous bug fixes. Honestly, this seems a little pointless to me when we have XML. This can't do anything that XML/XSLT/XSL-FO/DOM can't do in a more complete and standard way.
Sun's posted the first beta of Java Access Bridge 1.0.2 on the Java Developer Connection (registration required). The Java Access Bridge enablesa Windows based Assistive Technology to get at and interact with the Java Accessibility API. This release fixes several bugs, including "one that caused incompatibilities with Freedom Scientific's JAWS for Windows screen reader."
I succeeded in fixing the mouse on my Linux laptop by installing XFree86 4.10 and rebuilding the config files from scratch. However, I still haven't managed to update the firmware on my B&W G3 Mac; and it's beginning to drive me crazy. Various Mac help sites indicate that I'm not the only person who's had this problem. Unfortunately nothing that worked for anybody else seems to have worked for me.
Sun's released the ECperf Specification 1.0 and the ECperf Kit 1.0. ECPerf is a Java2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) benchmark "designed to measure performance and scalability."
JavaOne kicked off yesterday, and the announcements are starting to pour in. I don't attend JavaOne myself. I travel more than I like already, so I try to restrict myself to conferences that are local to me and ones that willing to pay me to talk.
Sun's posted the Java Architecture for XML Binding Working Draft (JAXB, previously known as Project Adelard) specification Version 0.21. I must admit this strikes me as a fairly pointless endeavor. I just can't figure out why I'd want to use this instead of SAX/DOM/JDOM/dom4j. But maybe I'll feel differently once I've had a chance to actually look at it. An early acccess implementation is available on the Java Developer Connection (registration required).
Sun's released version 1.1.2 of JavaHelp. JavaHelp is a platform-independent, extensible help system that enables developers and authors to incorporate online help in applets, components, applications, operating systems, and devices. No details yet on what's new in 1.1.2. It's probably just bug fixes and other such minor things. It's only available as an update to JavaHelp 1.1.
Sun's also posted source code for Java Data Objects beta reference implementation. Registration is required on Sun's web site (not the Java Developer Connection) but the usual cypherpunks/cypherpunks ID password seems to work.
IBM's alphaWorks has updated the Logging Toolkit for Java (JLog) to version 2.1.1 to fix one "small" bug. JLog includes message logging, tracing functions, and a Log Manager, which configures the various logging objects. JLog is designed to be easily extendable for product-specific needs and includes loggers, handlers, filters, and formatters.
Right now I'm in the down time between finishing up one book and starting the next. Generally this is when I do long-deferred system maintenance and upgrades. I've got three systems in need of an upgrade right now: one NT 4.0 box, one Mac, and one Linux laptop. Surprisingly, the system I'm least comfortable with, my NT box, caused me no problems whatsoever. I installed service pack 6 without a hitch, and the upgrade immediately fixed one major font corruption problem that had been bothering me for the last year.
Perhaps equally surprisingly the system I'm most comfortable with, my Mac, is giving me hissy-fits. It's been crashing frequently in AppleScript lately so I decided to upgrade to MacOS 9.1 to get the latest version of AppleScript that I hope will fix the problem. However my B&W G3 can't be upgraded to MacOS 9.1 (a necessary prerequisite for an eventual move to MacOS X) without first having its firmware updated; but the firmware update keeps failing for unexplained reasons.
Finally, I made the mistake of trying to get my Linux laptop to support my Microsoft USB optical mouse. Now it doesn't recognize the Microsoft mouse or the built-in trackpad. I've just about given up on this one, and may soon have to reinstall Linux or at least X-Windows.
Bare Bones Software has released BBEdit Lite 6.1, a free-beer text editor for the Mac. Version 6.1 has been carbonized for MacOS X, though it will run on system as old as 7.5.5. This release also adds support for Navigation Services, Appearance Manager, and QuickTime. New features include improved grep and multi-file search.
I've updated my Java course notes. Most of the content changes are quite minor. The major adjustment is that all the notes are now valid XHTML, which should make them a lot easier to work with and adapt to different formats in the future.
Slava Pestov's posted JEdit 3.2pre2, an open source programmer's editor written in Java. This release adds a new plugin manager, Verilog syntax highlighting, a Utilities->Reload Edit Modes command, a 'Search in Directory' command, and status bars in Views as well as many minor changes and bug fixes.
Apple's released Mac OS Runtime for Java (NMRJ) 2.2.5 to fix "problems affecting JAR caching, network behavior and users of 2-byte international systems." This is a JDK 1.1.8 VM for MacOS 8 and 9.x. Get it from the Software Update control panel.
I've posted a number of new corrections and errata for Java Network Programming, 2nd edition. All of these should be fixed in the third printing. Most of them are quite minor. The worst is that somehow the forward slash between "HTTP" and "1" got removed from all instances of HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/1.1 in Chapter 15. I'm not sure whether this was an editing error, a font problem, or what. In any case, it will be fixed soon.
Sun's released the Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition Version 1.3.0_03 (a.k.a. JDK 1.3.0.3) for Windows, Linux, and Solaris. This release fixes about a dozen bugs.
Sun's posted an early access release of the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition Client Access Services (J2EE CAS) COM Bridge 1.0 on the Java Developer Connection (registration required). This product he enables Windows developers to create native client applications that access Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) components deployed on a Java 2 Enterprise Edition application server. According to Sun,
The J2EE CAS COM Bridge provides a set of COM objects that let any COM-enabled client application establish a connection to an application server and obtain references to EJB components. The bridge will then transparently map remote objects (accessed by means of the RMI-IIOP protocol) to COM objects that the client can readily access using the COM IDispatch interface.
Romain Guy's released version 2.11 of Jext, and open source programmer's editor written in Java. This release mainly adds GUI customizations (skins, options...) and new languages support.