What features should be added to the Java language for Dolphin (7.0)?

Graham Hamilton blogs that key to the design of the Java Language is the principle that "It is more important that Java programs be easy to read than to write." In Evolving the Java Language, Hamilton looks at the lessons from C++ where power and flexibility were key to the design.

My initial reaction to many of the changes in Tiger is that they make Java programs harder to read. It may just be that I am unaccustomed to them and that with time these idioms will make life simpler. Hamilton writes "For Dolphin, as for Tiger, a lot of people both inside and outside of Sun will be involved in reviewing any language change proposals. The detailed designs will be handled through the JCP. But my suspicion is that we'll probably continue to stay very conservative on changes, as each little change also carries its little wad of additional complexity. We're unlikely to add a macro preprocessor (sorry) or any general form of operator overloading, or full-blown AOP, or any other mechanism for redefining and obscuring core semantics. But we will look for new language ideas that help developers with common problems. For example, one area I'm personally interested in is some kind of 'friends' import mechanism to make large multi-package projects easier to manage."

Hamilton's lastly addresses the important point that, although many of us like the Java language and intend to program in it for quite a while, there are other languages that can run in the JVM. There may be ideas that are incompatible with Java but not with the JVM and that should be incorporated in a new language that runs on the JVM.

Also in today's Weblogs Daniel Brookshier gets to meet the new JELC Board and is reminded of the wisdom of his great grandfather, "Desert Steve" Ragsdale. Malcolm Davis compares the Conflicting mindsets of C# vs. Java.

In Also in Java Today , Edd Dumbill reports that news " from the W3C of a new rash of web service specifications. I tell you, not even King CORBA in all its glory was clothed with specs such as these!" In Fallacy and Lunacy, Edd summarizes and comments on Roger Costello's summary of "Fallacies of Validation." He also turns his attention to SOAP and ends with the following send up "SOAP specs have little specs upon their backs to spite 'em And little specs have lesser specs, and so ad infinitum ."

"Object slicing is defined as the conversion of an object into something with less information (typically a superclass). [..] Object slicing throws away information. But in some situations this may be exactly what we want." In Object Slicing and Component Design with Java, Constantin Gonciulea reminds us that "In Java, objects are passed by reference, and all methods are virtual, so object slicing will not occur inadvertently. Even if you upcast an object, its real type is not forgotten". He looks at how and why you would use Object Slicing in Java coding.

In Projects and Communities ,the left column of the JUGs community home page features a list of upcoming JUG meetings from around the world. Add yours to the list.

Join the JavaLive chat on Java BluePrints for SOA and get questions answered September 14. 11:00 A.M. PDT/6:00 P.M. UTC.

The Chapter in our bookclub selection on How to make wealth leads today's Forums. Jonathan Simon writes "This one had some very personal overtones for me. I enjoyed the discussion at the beginning of the chapter about how wealth is generated, but I was more taken by the discussion of measurement and leverage." The remainder of his post discusses jobs where one or the other was present.

In the Dream Language, JavaKiddy adds that "What I forgot to stress in my original posting was that the Amiga people did just that: in the developers documentation they made a big deal about not bashing the hardware. Some programmers did it anyway - which encouraged others to do the same (because after all you want your software to be as cool as the next guy's, right?) Before long it was commonplace."

In today's java.net News Headlines :

• Enhydra Shark 1.0
• SwingML 1.1
• JNode 0.1.8
• XMLSig 0.14
• JamVM 1.2.0
• EditX 2.0

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