Email	Print Reprint
	add to:
	Del.icio.us Digg Google Furl	Slashdot Y! MyWeb Blink
	TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Web Services Conclusion

The first release of Java that was implemented and tested with the full support of the Java community has been released. Java SE 6 was the first version of Java that was available to the community in source and binary forms with each weekly build. Here are some interesting community and quality-related metrics for this release:

• Over 160 companies help test and verify compatibility and performance of their enterprise applications.
• Over 330 individuals contributed source for enhancements and bug fixes.
• Over 750 bugs were reported by the community.
• Over 300 bug fixes were contributed by the community.

According to Sun, one of the main goals for Java SE 6 was to offer improved performance without requiring the developer to explicitly tune the VM. Overall, this is the best performing version of Java SE yet. Because most of the optimizations were made to the just-in-time (JIT) compiler, you should see vast improvements in performance with your existing class and JAR files.

Other performance and efficiency improvements include quicker startup time of Java SE applications, and a smaller Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The platform is continually being examined to see if it can be made more modular. This means, as Java is componentized more in future releases, only the required pieces will be loaded as needed. This will help as Java SE becomes embedded in more and more devices in the future.

Easier to Use

Another goal for this release was to help make Java easier to use for both the end-user and the developer. For instance, the addition of startup splash screens, Windows tray icons, and a better integration with the native OS' look and feel, make Java applications easier to use for your users. A lot of work went into preparing Java SE 6 for the forthcoming release of Windows Vista and its new look-and-feel. There will also be a new release of the GDK for the Linux and Solaris environments.

For developers, a main concern was to improve debugging. Java SE 6 is more transparent in terms of knowing what's going on inside the VM. This is the first release of Java that lets you dynamically attach a debugger or profiler to any deployed and running Java application. There are no special compiler settings required to enable this; any Java application can be diagnosed this way, and there are no performance penalties when the application is not be diagnosed.

This is accomplished by actually inserting the probes for debugging and profiling at the time the debugger is attached to the process, and then ripping them all out when the debugger is stopped. This all happens while the process is running, and does not require you to stop the application. The result is the ability to dynamically diagnose application problems in their native, production, environments, without any overhead to normal execution.

1 Introduction | 2 Web Services | 3 Conclusion Next Page

RELATED ARTICLES Q&A: Software Testing In A Virtualized World Secure Software Needs Careful Testing -- And Lots Of It Securing the Java Core Petascale Tools and Genomic Evolution Legal Compliance: Open Source and Quality Assurance		TOP 5 ARTICLES No Top Articles.