MDR-EdO: Welcome to Java Live! Today's session is on Java^TM 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE^TM) version 1.4, which is currently available for Beta download. Our guests are product manger Sherman Dickman and Engineering manager Lara Bunni. Sherman is here right now, Lara should be here soon. They'll answer your J2SE 1.4-related questions. So let's begin--who has the first question?

Gilbuddy: Do you have a projected production release date for J2SE 1.4?

Sherman: The release schedule for J2SE 1.4 is early September for the second beta (internally called beta refresh), early October for the first release candidate and end of year for the production release.

Sherman: A follow up to the schedule question... moving forward, the schedule for 1.4 will be the same for all J2SE releases from Sun Microsystems, (such as the Solaris^TM Operating Environment, Linux, and Windows). All releases will be posted on the same date.

Knut: Has anything been done to reduce the memory footprint of Java (especially Swing) applications?

lara: We are currently in the process of trying to improve the memory footprint and so we are hoping for improvements over what we had in beta.

Habesha: What are the major changes in J2SE 1.4?

Sherman: 1.4 advances rich client application development and provides the foundation for standards-based, next-generation web services. We are making significant improvements for both client and server side development. On the client, we are pushing the performance for GUI based applets and applications using a vastly improved 2D graphics engine, we are adding new Swing controls such as scrollable tab pane, spinner, and progress bar controls. We are now providing full Drag and Drop support and enhanced data interchange between applications, auditory feedback, and mouse wheel support. We have also enhanced our deployment options using Java Web Start and Plug-in improvements, and also more internationalization options.

On the server side of the house, we have enhanced the performance in the VM through improved class loading, 64-bit support, improved GC, and a new scalable I/O package for high performance web and application servers. Across both client and server we have improved the security by adding three packages that were up to the point optional, such as JSSE, JAAS, and JCE. Also we have added XML support to the platform, Kerberos sign-on support, a new certificate path API, IPv6 support and full Java^TM DataBase Connectivity (JDBC^TM) 3.0 support as well.

Chris Rijk: There are *loads* of details here about what's new and improved.

Nate, The Other: Can you give me an overview of the "high performance Java 2D^TM graphics", particularly the hardware-supported offscreen bitmaps?

lara: One of the key additions is access to hardware acceleration for offscreen images which in turn results in better performance rendering to and copying from the images. Note though that with the Windows 3.2 platform, when using hardware accelerated images, their contents may be lost at any time, which the application will not have any control over. The new class that allows you to manage this hardware acceleration is VolatileImage.

The new pipeline architecture also helps with performance by improving the way that the data is shared by the various rendering pipelines, by reducing the amount of code that is executed and reducing the garbage created when responding to changes in the rendering attributes. We also improved the way that the various graphics routines are chosen such as the routines that copy pixels from one format and location to another.

test: Will the Classic VM still be provided in SDK 1.4?

Sherman: The Classic VM will no longer be included in 1.4 and beyond, either in source or binary form. The Classic source and binary are still available in 1.3.1 and earlier releases.

Yves: Why so much time between beta and beta refresh? Currently, JDK^TM 1.2 and 1.3 suffer from core dumps, so does JDK 1.4 as well? It is frustrating to wait so long between updates.

Sherman: The reason there appears to be a long lapse between beta and beta refresh are:

1. We needed to build enough time into the schedule to allow for developers to test out the new APIs, gather feedback, and then incorporate changes back into the release, and
2. Since 1.4 is a very functionally rich offering, we needed time to stabilize the new features going into the release.

Chris Rijk: According to some people who went to the JavaOne^SM conference, the "real" performance enhancements will show up in beta 2. (J2SE 1.4 beta 1 doesn't seem much different compared to J2SE 1.3.1 in performance to me). Can you confirm?

Sherman: Yes, it is important to note that we are currently in beta for 1.4, and thus far the focus has been on functionality and new APIs. Additionally, we have been engineering new "features" that will boost performance, such as the enhancements with the 2D graphics engine. You will see improved performance with the beta refresh release, and additional improvements in the release candidate.

catriona: I am currently working in the swarm package and want to know about class cast exceptions?

lara: We do have a new facility that allows you to record the fact that one exception caused another, to access causative exception and to access the chain as part of the standard stack trace making sure that preexisting apps will be able to provide this information with no additional effort.

don smith: Have any major vendors consulted with you regarding creating apps with the new I/O packages?

Sherman: Yes, major application vendors are very excited about the new I/O APIs. The new I/O APIs will significantly improve (among other things) the performance and scalability of web and application servers, and there is a lot of interest from vendors in these markets.

ole: How well can we expect the AWT classes to take on the new Look of Windows XP?

Bjorn Bakke: In the past the Windows look and feel has received its share of poundings from the community. The JDK 1.4 is targeting some of these issues by making several "tunings" to things like the JFileChooser. Now that Windows XP is as much around the corner as JDK 1.4 how well will the Windows look and feel adapt to the changes in Windows XP look and feel?

lara: The fine tuning that the Swing team provided on the Windows look and feel is great, although this was mainly targeting Win98 and 2000. They are looking at XP, but I cannot say at this point how well it will adapt to the Windows XP look and feel.

Anand: What kind of Unicode support do you have? I am especially interested in support for Indian languages like Sankrit, Hindi, Telugu, and Kannada.

Sherman: We will be providing Unicode 3.0 support in J2SE 1.4. Additionally, we have a new character set interface for plugable character set converters, and also support for Hindi and Thai locales. One other point to mention is that the 1.4 JRE will be localized in ten languages for all platforms (Solaris, Linux, and Windows).

num: Is there a list of bug fixes?

Sherman: Yes there is a list of bug fixes as part of the download in the documentation.

Chris Rijk: For a complete list of bugs fixed (so far), see the table.

Spiff: Were there a lot of changes in native libraries in 1.4 or was it mostly code? I'm trying to figure out how long it might take Apple to port 1.4 to OS X.

lara: There were a number of changes that were applied to the native level as well as the code. We have been working very closely with Apple on the changes that we have implemented to allow them to provide us with early feedback so that they can port 1.4 as soon as possible.

don smith: Are any of the new APIs going to receive modifications in the refresh? If so which ones?

Sherman: Some of the new APIs will receive modifications in the beta refresh to address issues uncovered in the beta release that affect functionality.

rock: What is the release schedule for the 1.4 TCK?

Sherman: The final release for the 1.4 TCK will be made available at the same time as the J2SE 1.4 final release.

Habesha: For applications to benefit from the new I/O packages, do they have to be rewritten? Do you have benchmark data for J2SE 1.4?

Sherman: Yes, applications will need to be revised to take advantage of the new I/O APIs.

don: Does J2SE 1.4 have support for generics/templates?

Sherman: There is no support for Generics in 1.4. It is currently a "targeted" feature for 1.5. However, since all J2SE releases from 1.4 and beyond participate in the Java Community Process, the final feature set for 1.5 will be determined by the Java Community Process^SM (JCP) expert group for that release.

ole: I understand there is a new focus model introduced in the 1.4. How will this affect programs developed with earlier development kits?

lara: Yes we do have a new focus model which we introduced in 1.4. When the beta was released a number of key problems were found with respect to backward compatibility, most of which have been resolved in the beta-refresh. What I would really advise you to do is to check out the refresh when it becomes available in early September and let us know as soon as possible about any problems you find with your application.

Knut: Are there other changes to the core language apart from assertions?

Sherman: The assertion facility is the core language change in J2SE 1.4.

Brad: Have there been any improvements to printing? Does this release support automatically printing to a file?

Sherman: There is a new Java Print Service API that allows you to discover and select print services, enhanced formatting options and a plug-in interface so that third parties can plug in their own print services.

scott: Would you please elaborate on the JDBC 3.0? New features and improvements?

lara: A brief rundown of the changes to JDBC 3.0 are the following:

• Has the ability to set save points in a transaction
• Keeps result sets open after a transaction is committed
• Reuses prepared statements
• Gets metadata about parameters to a prepared statement

You have two new JDBC data types: BOOLEAN and DATALINK. You should go ahead and check out the documentation that is part of the document download with 1.4.

Knut: I don't know if this is too specific, but I have some printing code that used to work in 1.3, but doesn't in 1.4 beta. I must admit I use the old style printing (PrintJob). I print out some Swing components plus some extra lines and text, I scale them to fit on the page, but the scaling goes wrong in 1.4, so it doesn't fit on the page at all. Is this a bug or a feature? :-)

Sherman: Well, it would be kind of difficult for me to determine the problem, however, I strongly encourage you and other developers who are experiencing issues with the 1.4 beta to file a bug report in the Bug Parade on the JDC site.

MDR-EdO: Well unfortunately our session is over. I want to thank everyone for their participation--we had some excellent questions. And of course I'd especially like to thank our guests, Sherman and Lara, for their excellent answers.

Sherman: Thank you all for your questions. See you next time. - Sherman Dickman

lara: Thanks to everyone for taking the time to come and ask us your questions. We would like to answer many more and so please send us your feedback to the beta alias that is provided with the download. It would be great also if you could try the beta refresh when it comes out and hopefully myself and Sherman will be back again to answer your refresh issues. Lara

MDR-EdO: Last moderator (me) signing off. The forum is now unmoderated.

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