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Posted by editor on July 6, 2007 at 11:21 AM EDT

Early candidates for JDK 7

Java SE 7 remains a reasonably long ways off -- the Java in Production blog gives 2009 as an approximate launch date -- yet it's not too early to see some of its pieces coming together. If the past is any guide, we'll see a feature freeze months before the final version, so we may have a clear view of its contents by, say, early next year.

Some of the pieces are already coming together through the JCP. A number of key API's are being developed in a process that develops the implementation in parallel with the specification. Two local examples of this are the Beans Binding and Swing Application Framework projects. Both of them have pre-JSR code you can check out and start working with now, with the caveat that it's a work in progress. There's also the OpenJDK Modules projects, which represent work on JSR-277 and JSR-294.

So there are a couple of pieces we can be reasonably certain will make SE 7 -- if they don't, it certainly won't be for lack of preparedness.

Meanwhile, the JCP site shows a number of JSR's currently in one of the review stages: JSR-275 (Units Specification), which we'll mention again in a minute, is in public review, as is JSR-225 (XQuery API for Java). Meanwhile, the SE-related JSR's JSR-113 (Java Speech API 2.0), JSR-196 (Authentication Service Provider Interface for Containers), and JSR-263 (Fault Management API) all have final drafts available for review.

So, if you look around and dig in, you can see some of the pieces of Java SE 7 beginning to take shape. We'll have more to say on this as part of a special series that's still in development, but for now, if one of these topics interests you, why not take a look at the resources that are available? You can be the first among your peers to start preparing for SE 7.

And on the topic of looking through the upcoming JSR's, the latest java.net Poll asks "How often do you read early drafts or public reviews of JSR's?" Cast your vote on the front page, then visit the results page for current tallies and discussion.

The Java Today starts off with another item on digging into JSR drafts. Before the early draft review for JSR-275 (Units Specification) ends on July 8, there are several places interested developers can go for more information. The jsr-275 project is the home for the expert group's collaboration, and hosts the current draft spec (PDF, 296 KB). You can also check out JScience.org, which is hosting the reference implementation for javax.measure.*.

World Wind is open-source software, developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that allows you to zoom from satellite altitude into any place on earth. But it's not just a toy. As the SDN article Using NASA's World Wind Component in Your Java Technology points out, "World Wind is a Java technology component that you can integrate into your applications to incorporate 3D earth modeling. World Wind does all the hard work for you, such as dynamic image selection and retrieval for images of the earth's topography. In addition, because the software is open source and written in the Java programming language, you can build into the NASA World Wind Java 3D visualization technology. You are also free to extend or embed the component architecture for business, research, or education. "

The latest issue of the JavaTools Community Newsletter is out, with tool news from around the web, announcements of new projects in the community (QN Plot and JavaDS), and a Tool Tip on creating Jasper Reports using NetBeans.

Today's Weblogs returns to the topic of the Units Specification JSR (mentioned above) in Jody Garnett's JSR-275 And why GeoTools does not care yet. "The deadline for JSR275 is coming up on July 8th, as one of the top users of the JSR108 (which was withdrawn) you would think GeoTools would care about what is going on ... here is why we don't: Java 1.4."

In Firefox profiles - A very useful feature for web development, Bino George writes, "Firefox/Mozilla have a feature called profiles that allow you to run multiple instance of the browser in same windows/linux logon without clobbering each other. This can be helpful for testing multiple users/sessions simultaneously. It can also help you keep your normal settings safe from your web development."

Finally, Fabrizio Giudici offers Jazoon slides + screenshots and screencast. "For interested people that couldn't attend Jazoon, I'm posting the slides that backed the blueMarine demo (I'll post the BoF slides later, as Moritz, Emmanuele and I will try to launch the idea behind it in a few days)."

In today's Forums, Alan Weiler has a fact-check in Re: J2ME on BlackBerry. "I must be looking at different information than you. Both the AT&T Dev site and the Blackberry site show that most of the Blackberries from the last two years on Cingular run Java. I have in my hand a Blackberry 8700 running on Cingular that runs Java. I have only tested this one device directly. But, you have to pay the extra money per month for the blackberry data plan."

dansiviter points out some Java advantages in Re: Develop in Java or not? "Java is, at the end of the day, a wrapper on top of natively compiled code so will not out perform well written C/C++ applications. However, in the real world, people rarely write well written code, but java helps promote good code through it's excellent APIs and IDEs. To the point that in many of our feasibility studies, Java performed noticeably better than it's C/C++ counterparts in desktop and server guises with reduced development time."

cowwoc wants Swing to borrow from NetBeans, with a proposal in Re: Will JFileChooser be fixed for Java7? "Guys, the new file chooser in Netbeans 6.0 contains big improvements. To be clear, it still isn't perfect, but it provides filename auto-completion and the ability to drilling into a folder by hitting ENTER while it is selected. I'm hoping the Swing team will pick this up and fold it back into the JDK. Is there anything I can do to held make this happen?"

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Early candidates for JDK 7
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