Rémi Forax's Blog

JDK7: language enhancements

Wow, we begin to have a good view of the language enhancements planed for Dolphin JDK7.

1. XML Syntax : blog entry by Mark Reinhold
2. Super-packages : blog entry by Gilad Bracha
3. Closure : a blog entry by Peter Ahé
4. Annotations to detect software failure : JSR 305 submitted by Bill Pugh.

Like any geek, i'm not sure to be able to wait 2 more years before playing with these features.

Comments

• Are Java guys at Sun even listening to the community? There are some that like the xml syntax, closures, etc. but there are a lot of developers that don't like these features to be added to Java! Closures are lovely but the one proposed by Gilad et. al is not any. Actually when for backward compatibility collections won't be enhanced to have "each" and similar closure supported methods.I have been watching people's reaction to these proposals and it seems those who stand against these proposals are quietly ignored.
  Lets not destroy the Java mantra!
  - Behi

  Posted by: behrangsa on September 06, 2006 at 09:32 AM

• "there are a lot of developers that don't like these features"

  How do u proof?

  or u is the only one that against them?

  Dun say "A lot of" if you do have a well support.

  For me I love the new features very much.

  Java should improve itself to overcome new challenges

  Posted by: fcmmok on September 06, 2006 at 09:54 AM

• At least, for superpackages there is JSR 294 as well. I would be interested to know if there is one for the closures as well already.

  Posted by: rbirenheide on September 07, 2006 at 12:27 AM

• fcmmok and forax:

  Sorry but this guy is right. The community does not welcome these features, nor the inclusion of a DB in the JDK. Listen to the people, this is a major mistake.
  

  Posted by: icoloma on September 07, 2006 at 12:29 AM

• Good solutions there, just a shame they're all for the wrong problem.

  Javas language features are not an issue for most developers. The problem is getting modern JRE's onto as many client machines as possible. I want java to be as commonplace as Flash.
  I want to see the Java Browser Edition .

  I want to see firefox install a JRE when it first see's an applet the way it installs flash when it first sees a flash animation.

  I want to see suns new friendly handholding with Microsoft result in Vista have at least java 5 bundled with it, with all the common PC makers (Dell and the other usual suspects) bundling modern JREs.
  I want an activeX control for IE that can install a JRE on a machine.

  
  If I'm the only one who thinks these things then shoot me down in flames and ignore me. But I've got a funny feeling that theres a lot of client developers out there to whom Java is not just a way of pumping HTML/Javascript to the users browser. And we're constantly hamped when trying to distributed demos or products by the "First install Java" hurdle that puts customers off.

  Write Once, Download Many Times, Run Eventually.

  
  

  Posted by: luggypm on September 07, 2006 at 12:42 AM

• fcmmok,

  Some of the people that leaved comments on Peter's blog were against the proposal.

  Take this one for example:

  Peter, I can hardly believe you are going to come up seriously with the stuff like non-local transfer and exception upon access of local variables of statically enclosing method. I can't stop thinking this proposal is a joke.

  Or the one that starts like this:

  Very. Bad. Idea. Very.

  There are some negative comments on Neal's blog as well. Kirill also had posted a nice blog a few days ago.

  For the time being, I cannot find any more references but I hope that this is kind of sufficient :-)

  -Behi

  Posted by: behrangsa on September 07, 2006 at 08:05 AM

• Oops! By leaved, I mean, left :-p

  Posted by: behrangsa on September 07, 2006 at 08:07 AM

• Last I heard, language-level support for properties and method references (not closures) were also being considered. Although JR-305 may take advantage of language changes involving annotations, few annotations will probably depend on those changes.

  Posted by: coxcu on September 08, 2006 at 10:47 AM

• While the continued debate over JDK features rolls on, our company has abandoned the use of Java. Why? Because we actually need desktop applications and Java still has poor integration with the desktop. The slow start-up times have been discussed many times, in many forums, but nothing ever happens. Java applications do not feel like part of the environment. Some say "ah, thats because they arent written well" - but I'm still to see a java desktop app that "feels native" - even the mighty eclipse falls down here.

  Totally agree with luggypm's comments. We create complex scientific applications, and we have more than enough JDK language features to do what we need. BUT until Java just works better on the OS/desktop, I no longer care what features get added.

  Posted by: lh49 on October 19, 2007 at 11:34 PM

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