Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced the much anticipated beta program for the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition 1.5—J2SE 1.5. Code named Project Tiger, today’s beta release of J2SE 1.5 includes new Java programming language updates focusing on ease-of-development, dramatic new application monitoring and management features, continued focus on rich client support for the PC desktop and greater performance. The J2SE platform is the software development and deployment platform of choice that is used by many vendors and developers for delivering a wide range of secure, portable, network-aware content and services. J2SE powers the Sun Java Enterprise System, the Sun Java Studio Enterprise tools and the Sun Java Desktop System offerings.
“Java technology gives developers the best platform for innovation and ease of development,” said Mark Bauhaus, vice president, Java Web Services, Sun Microsystems. “J2SE 1.5 marks a tremendous achievement for the Java development community, and is a key milestone in the Java technology roadmap. These Java programming language enhancements appeal to a broad variety of Java developers by harnessing the power of the Java platform and allowing developers greater to access it.”
J2SE is the premier platform for Java technology and is in huge demand on the desktop. With over 110 million downloads of the J2SE software developer kit (SDK) and Java Runtime Environment (JRE) since its availability in December 1998, its popularity and critical impact on network computing is undisputed. The Java technology is the clear choice of developers and ISVs using J2SE for rich desktop applications such as financial management and data visualization. Communication applications such as popular Web chat applications and instant messaging applications are based on J2SE, as are a large variety of multi-player games—many of which can be downloaded at java.com.
The J2SE platform has also reached directly into the consumer computing space with over 27 million copies of the JRE that have been downloaded by consumers from Java.com. In the last 30 days, consumers have downloaded six million copies of the JRE. Additionally, industry-leading PC manufacturers cumulatively representing over 60 percent of the PC market are now factory-installing the Java Runtime Environment on their systems, putting Java technology everywhere.
This new version of J2SE entering beta today demonstrates Sun’s commitment to constant innovation on the Java platform and to provide the best value to developers. The language updates in the new version allow developers to be more efficient and more productive by supporting faster and more secure coding. New features include generics, enumerated types, metadata and autoboxing of primitive types. Performance improvements integral to the new release include reduced startup time, a smaller memory footprint and Java Virtual Machine (JVM) auto-tuning to drive greater overall application and development performance on the new platform.
Monitoring and manageability is a key focus for the release, and J2SE 1.5 features improvements that allow Java technology-based applications created on the J2SE 1.5 platform to be deployed into existing SNMP-based enterprise management systems. This allows the JVM software to be monitored and managed for higher levels of reliability, availability and serviceability. Also new in J2SE 1.5 platform is the inclusion of the Java Management Extensions (JMX), delivering out-of-the-box deployment to enterprise management systems that support JMX.
J2SE 1.5 also includes continued support for rich application development that integrated development environment (IDE) vendors can take advantage of to provide an even greater developer experience. One of the first IDEs to support the new J2SE 1.5 technology capabilities is the NetBeans open source IDE. With over 2.1 million downloads since June 2003, the popular NetBeans software tools framework is staged for a new release, version 3.6, which is expected to be available via beta program this week. NetBeans release 3.6 is compatible with the J2SE 1.5 release, and NetBeans release 4.0 is expected to be fully optimized to take advantage of J2SE 1.5 platform features.
The powerful combination of the NetBeans software IDE with the rich client desktop development enhancements of the J2SE 1.5 platform deliver all the benefits of “Write Once, Run Anywhere” functionality, making it possible to build rich desktop applications with an up-to-date, native operating system look and feel. In addition, since the NetBeans platform is based on Java technology, it supports the popular development platforms, including the Solaris Operating System, Windows, Windows XP and Linux. NetBeans release 3.6 beta will be available located at http://netbeans.org.
Beta Program Enrollment Open Now
J2SE 1.5 has been developed under the Java Community Process (JCP) as Java Specification Request (JSR) 176, which is led by Sun and an expert group of industry-recognized corporate and individual developers. The JSR recently won a unanimous vote in the JCP Executive Committee, making way for the beta program to officially open, and accept participants immediately. For more information and to participate in the J2SE 1.5 beta program, visit http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.
