Pre-JavaOne News

Sure, there’ll be lots of Java-related news and top-secret announcements made at JavaOne, but why wait?

Of course JavaOne will be filled with many highly anticipated, top-secret, announcements, like all the JavaOnes that have come before. Unfortunately, I don't know of any JavaOne rumor sites in existence like the ones for Apple and the Mac. However, if I had to guess, there will probably be more big open-source announcements. I'm anxious to see what that will be. There will also probably be some announcements about profiles for Java EE 6, similar to the concept of profiles for Java ME (CLDC, CDC, and so on). This was alluded to last week on TheServerSide.

Project WSIT

However, there is a way to a glimpse of what’s really coming at JavaOne before JavaOne. For instance, an "Ask The Experts" session on Microsoft’s and Sun’s Web Services Interoperability Technology (WSIT) will be held from April 30, through May 4. Ask the Experts gives you the opportunity to ask questions about a Java technology or Java tool from Sun, and get answers from experts on that topic. The Ask the Experts program requires no login, and allows you to submit questions at a time convenient to you.

WSIT was highlighted at JavaOne last year as Project Tango. I expect more information to be announced about WSIT this year. The "Ask the Experts" session will help you get a head start on this information; imagine how you could impress your friends at JavaOne with your crystal-ball insight!

NetBeans Sample Catalogue

If you haven’t visited netbeans.org recently, you may not have noticed the latest sample application catalogue available. Sun’s efforts to make NetBeans a premier IDE has resulted in a comprehensive list of sample applications for NetBeans. These samples include complex applications that demonstrate the latest development concepts for Ajax, JRuby, Rails, Java ME and Phone API, application profiling, and reverse engineering. Here is a complete list of sample applications that you can access through the NetBeans Update Center.

Eclipse Live

Eclipse recently launched the Eclipse Live Portal, which is a meant to be the source of multi-media material about Eclipse and Eclipse-based projects. You can find live Webinars, blogs, forums, and podcasts, about many Eclipse and Java-related issues, such as this one about developing Java applications on Linux with Eclipse.

And don’t forget the Eclipse party at JavaOne!

Eclipse and Ajax

Speaking of Eclipse, I read an interesting blog by Edward Ort on java.net recently about some informal polls given to developers at the 5th annual TheServerSide Java Symposium. Java developers voted Eclipse as their preferred development environment, hands down. Additionally, when asked about which development tools, languages, and trends were being followed most closely, Ajax and JavaScript beat the others, such as Java EE 5, Java SE 6, and DTrace. Interesting poll results, even if they were informal.

JavaOne Sessions to Check Out

Each year, prior to JavaOne, Sun provides lists of the top-ten sessions and/or Birds of a Feather (BOF) to check out; one for Java on the desktop, and another for Java in the enterprise. You can find this year’s picks at:

-Top 10 Desktop Destinations
-Top 10 Enterprise Destinations

However, the number one session on my list is Java SE Cool Stuff Session TS-1205, The Sun Java Real-Time System Meets Wall Street. This session, presented by two close friends of mine, Jim Clarke and Jim Connors, is about Sun's implementation of the Real-Time Specification for Java (JSR 001), the Sun Java Real-Time System (RTS). Java RTS enables real-time processing through techniques that protect important threads from garbage collection and other system interrupts. This means that trading systems can confidently monitor the market and take action consistently within a calculated window of opportunity.

To demonstrate the impact of these techniques, Sun's OEM Software Systems Engineering technical team has written a demonstration of a trading system that uses real trade data. The demonstration compares a regular Java virtual machine against the Sun Java Real-Time System. For each run, a graph shows the difference in the actual trade price and the price when the trade should have executed. Running this trading system with the Sun Java Real-Time System shows that no money is lost due to garbage collection latencies. The results will be contrasted with the same application run with the standard (non-real-time) Java virtual machine.

I’ve seen the demo (well, I’ve actually worked on it), and it’s impressive. If you’re going to be at JavaOne this year, be sure to check it out.

Happy coding!
-EJB

Posted by Eric Bruno at 11:00 PM  Permalink