Java News from Friday, November 10, 2006

Timesys has posted the third maintenance release of JSR-1 Real-time Specification for Java . "The first two changes close a scoped memory leak. If an AEH uses the default initial memory area, 1.0.1's semantic 17 will prevent that memory area from ever returning to a zero reference count. In the case of a thread, the reference count could return to zero if and only if the thread is started and terminates. This set of changes primarily revises semantic 17 so being an initial memory area is only a source of non-zero reference if it is not the default initial memory area. This closes the above leak."

Sun's posted a maintenance release of Java Specification Request 118, Mobile Information Device Profile 2.0. MIDP describes "the core application functionality required by mobile applications - including the user interface, network connectivity, local data storage, and application lifecycle management - packaged as a standardized Java runtime environment and set of Java APIs." This release, 2.1, makes over 40 assorted changes, mostly relating to device support for various features.

Nokia has posted the early draft review of JSR-293 Location API 2.0 to the JCP. According to the draft:

This specification defines a Java ME Optional Package that enables mobile location-based applications for resource limited devices (referred to as 'terminals' in the following). The API is designed to be a compact and generic API that produces information about the present geographic location of the terminal to Java applications. This API covers obtaining information about the present geographic location and orientation of the terminal and accessing a database of known landmarks stored in the terminal [ JSR179].

The Location API 2.0 for Java ME extends JSR 179 Location API. This means that JSR 179 specification is part of the JSR 293 specification. Therefore applications written for Location API are upwards compatible with Location API 2.0 and will work without any changes in the Location API 2.0 complian terminals. In addition to minor clarifications to Location API [ JSR179], the version 2.0 adds several new features to the API. These features include:

Nokia and Sun have posted the public review draft of JSR-280 XML API for JavaTM ME . to the Java Community Process (JCP). This attempts to subset SAX, StAX, JAXP, and DOM to run in small devices. This strikes me as such as bad idea, it's hard to believe they're serious. If size is such a concern (and in small devices it is) then pick one API and stick with it; or design a new one. Don't try to pull out half of each. Including both SAX and StAX in particular really smells of design by committee. There's no need to force both on device vendors. Pick one and be done with it. Comments are due by November 13.

Subversion 1.4.2, an open source version control system designed to replace CVS, has been released. 1.4.2 fixes bugs and improves documentation.

Alan Ezust has uploaded the eighth pre-release of jEdit 4.3, an open source programmer's editor written in Java with extensive plug-in support and my preferred text editor on Windows and Unix. This release fixes bugs and cleans up the API.

JScape has released the Secure FTP Factory 6.1, a $599 payware class library for FTP, SFTP, and FTPS (FTP over SSL) protocols. This release adds relative path support and Sftp.getInputStream and Sftp.getOutputStream methods. It also fixes bugs.

Jayasoft has released Ivy 1.4.1, a free Java based dependency manager, that features transitive dependencies, Ant integration, Maven compatibility, and continuous integration. Some bugs have been fixed in this release.

Nokia has posted the maintenance review draft of JSR-135, Mobile Media API. The changes seem fairly minor, and mostly clarify a few unclear parts of the existing spec.