Java News from Saturday, June 26, 2004
Sun has posted the proposed final draft (version 0.51) of Java Specification Request (JSR) 176, J2SE™ 1.5 (Tiger) Release Contents, to the Java Community Process (JCP). "TThis specification will define the target feature and API set for J2SE 5.0 The goal is that the
final release will include all the high and medium priority features from this target list, but depending
on implementation and API design schedules some items may be deferred to a later
release if they are unable to make the release schedule. The final specification will reflect the
final J2SE 5.0 deliverables."
High priority new features (Java 1.5 will not ship without them) include:
- Compile-time type safety with generics (JSR-014)
- JVM monitoring and management API
- Unicode supplementary character support (JSR-204)
- An API to generate Java stack traces for all threads
- Java Language Metadata (Annotation)
- JMX support in J2SE
- Java Platform Profiling Architecture (JSR-163)
- Support latest Unicode version
Medium priority features (Important but will not hold up the release) include
- An unsynchronized StringBuffer
- Extended for loops
- JPDA pluggable connections and transports
- Scanning and formatting
- Type-safe enums to Java
- Generics support for the Java Platform Debugging Architecture (JPDA)
- A read-only subset of JDI
- A concurrency library (JSR-166)
- Non-blocking SSL/TLS functionality
- Auto boxing of primitives
- Decimal Arithmetic Enhancements (JSR-013)
- JAXP support for current XML standards, XML/Namespace 1.1, SAX 2.0.1, and DOM Level 3 (JSR 206)
- "Minor" CORBA specification updates
- Swing Skins Look and Feel
- Fix the Java Memory Model (JSR-133)
- Disconnected Rowsets (JSR-114)
- pack/crunch compression for Java downloads (JSR-200)
- On-the wire interoperability
- Accessibility bugs
- HTTP client: Connect and read timeouts
- JPDA support for enums
- Variable length argument lists
- Move Java Management Extensions into the core library
- Document com.sun.tools.javac.Main for use in a program
Low priority, "targets of opportunity" include
- A method to generate a UUIDs (Universal Unique Identifiers)
- Library support for common bit manipulation operations
- Dynamic proxies as RMI stubs
- An API in
Container
that can change
the Z-ordering of children
- An Object Reference Template in ORB
- Swing printing support
- Add methods from C libm and IEEE 754 to the Java math library
- Support for standard LDAP controls
- Support for the Java SASL API (JSR 28)
- Support on-line certificate status checking protocol (OCSP)
- Full pluggability for JSSE
- LDAP Name Manipulation
- Support for importing constants
- A method to test the reachability of a host in
InetAddress
- Improved Security Access and Control
- JNLP API Enhancements
- Cookie support
- Improved proxy server configuration and selection
- New
AccessibleRelations
, AccessibleRoles
, AccessibleState
(constants)
- An
AccessibleStreamable
API in javax.accessible
- JVMTI spec requirements for debugging
- RSA-OAEP parameters for XML Encryption
The only change listed since the last draft is:
"Update feature details of 4674944 On-the wire interoperability."
I just realized something: Java 1.5, being covered at JavaOne, is code named Tiger. Mac OS X 10.4, being announced across the hall in Moscone is code named Tiger. And I've heard a couple of hints that there's something big and unexpected being announced by Sun next week with regard to Java. Could there be some as yet unreleased big news about a Sun-Apple collaboration? Maybe Java becoming the preferred programming language for the Mac, and/or a beta of
Java 1.5 for Mac OS X being released? This is probably just a coincidence. But then again, maybe not.