Sun Ships New Version of Java Platform (1.5)

Hello

Before presenting this article, it is worth mentioning
that two of the best ways to call Java from PB are:

1. The PBNI way.  This is available for PB 9 and later.
2. The Active-x bridge.  This is available for PB of all
32-bit versions, Visual Basic, ..., any languages that
support active-x.

Binh
http://vmdd.tech.mylinuxisp.com/catalog/

 ========================================
===========================
Sun Ships New Version of Java Platform
Thursday September 30, 11:45 am ET
Over 100 New Features Set J2SE 5.0 for Next Generation of Java Developers


SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sun Microsystems,
Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW - News), the creator and leading advocate of Java(TM)
technology, today announced the general availability of Java 2 Platform
Standard Edition (J2SE(TM)) 5.0. As one of the largest-scale projects
developed through the Java Community Process(SM) (JCP(SM)), J2SE 5.0 involve
d
nearly 160 expert members designing over 100 features that drive extensive
developer benefits including ease of use, overall performance and
scalability, system monitoring and management, and rich client desktop
development. Easier to use with record breaking performance and quality, J2S
E
5.0 is being heralded as the most significant upgrade to the Java platform
and programming language in nearly a decade.
"J2SE 5.0 is delivering greatly improved developer productivity and
outstanding quality by relying on the deep values of the Java language," sai
d
Graham Hamilton, vice president, Sun fellow and lead architect for the J2SE
5.0 release. "Working through 15 Java Community Process expert groups, the
Java community has delivered the most significant update ever to the Java
platform. It sets the stage for the next wave of network systems innovation.
"

Java Evolves to Meet Emerging Needs of Programmers and Applications

J2SE 5.0 is derived from the work of 15 component Java Specification Request
s
(JSRs) encompassing advanced capabilities for the language and platform.
Industry leaders participating in the J2SE 5.0 expert group include Apache
Software Foundation, Apple Computer, BEA Systems, Borland Software
Corporation, cisco Systems, Fujitsu Limited, HP, IBM, Macromedia, Nokia
Corporation, Oracle, SAP AG, SAS Institute, SavaJe Technologies and Sun
Microsystems. Highlights of the new Java platform include:

Ease of development: Java language programmers can be more efficient and
productive with new Java language features that enable faster and more secur
e
coding. Generics, enumerated types, metadata and autoboxing of primitive
types enable easier and faster coding.
Monitoring and management: A key focus for the new platform release, the Jav
a
Virtual Machine and Java technology-based applications can be monitored and
managed with the built-in support for Java Management Extensions. This helps
ensure your employees', customer's and partner's systems stay up and running
longer. Support for SNMP-based enterprise management systems is also viable.
Rich client desktop: A new, more modern default Java technology-based
application look and feel provides an up-to-date GUI for Java technology-
based applications. J2SE 5.0 has full internationalization support and also
features support for hardware acceleration via the OpenGLŪ API for Linux and
Solaris(TM) operating systems.
Greater Performance and scalability: The new release includes performance
improvements such as faster startup time, a smaller memory footprint, and JV
M
auto-tuning to drive greater overall application and development performance
on J2SE 5.0 over previous versions.
"In accord with the increasingly open Java Community Process policies and
guidelines, several major components of J2SE 5.0 were conceived and led by
members of the Java development community," said Doug Lea, professor at the
State University of New York, Oswego. "All 15 component JSRs had plenty of
community involvement, leading to more advice, feedback, review, testing and
midcourse improvements than ever before in a major Java platform release. As
specification lead for the Concurrency Utilities specification, it's great t
o
see the results of all these component JSRs efficiently coordinated and
available in J2SE."

"Above all else, this is a developer-focused release. When the Java platform
was introduced by James Gosling and his team in 1995, it took off like a
rocket because it struck a chord with developers -- and J2SE 5.0 is building
on that legacy," said Joshua Bloch, specification lead for new language
features (JSR-201), metadata (JSR-175) and author of Effective Java (Addison
Wesley, 2001). "I've had the good fortune to use the new features for the
last year-and-a-half in the course of their development. I find them a joy t
o
use and I have every confidence that other developers will too."

The Java technology platform's leadership and impact on innovation in the
network computing industry is undisputed. The J2SE platform is the foundatio
n
platform for delivering Java on the desktop and throughout the enterprise.
Over the course of both beta phases for the release, over a half million
downloads of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and Software Development Kit
(SDK) have signaled tremendous interest in the Java platform among developer
s.

The installed base of Java-based technology users continues to dominate in
the enterprise and on the desktop with an estimated 150 million downloads of
J2SE since its availability in December 1998. Additionally, nine out of the
10 leading PC manufacturers, cumulatively representing over 60 percent of th
e
PC market, are now factory-installing the Java Runtime Environment on their
systems. These manufacturers include Acer, Apple, Dell, Gateway, HP, Fujitsu
-
Siemens, Samsung, Tsinghua Tongfang and Toshiba.

"Beyond the technical improvements delivered by J2SE 5.0 over its
predecessors, we were pleased to observe tight collaboration across the
community in the development of this new platform," said Geir Magnusson Jr.,
The apache Software Foundation's JCP SE/EE Executive Committee
member. "Individual, academic, open source and corporate entities have worke
d
together to deliver what is now the best Java Platform the Java development
community has ever seen," added Pier Fumagalli, The apache Software
Foundation's representative on the J2SE Expert Group. "This is a major step
in the right direction, and we are looking forward to even broader community
participation and process transparency for J2SE 6."

"J2SE 5.0 is the culmination of many years' work and a major step forward fo
r
the Java community," said George Paolini, Vice President and General Manager
of Borland's Developer Tools Business Unit. "Enterprises around the globe
will benefit from the ability to extend legacy systems through its
implementation of web services and be able to integrate heterogeneous
environments much more easily than before. Borland's Jbuilder 2005 is among
the first Java development tools to fully support J2SE 5.0. and make this a
reality."

In conjunction with today's news, Zero G Software announced that it is the
first to deliver full installer support for J2SE 5.0. Users of
InstallAnywhere from Zero G, the de facto standard for multiplatform softwar
e
deployment and delivery and the most widely used installer authoring tool fo
r
Java-enabled software, will reap the benefits of the newest Java features
including the ability to bundle the J2SE virtual machine with installers, an
d
have their applications use J2SE 5.0. The integration of J2SE 5.0
functionality also provides InstallAnywhere users with a significant increas
e
in installer and build performance.

"InstallAnywhere has always been the first to support the latest innovations
in Java technology," said Eric N. Shapiro, CEO at Zero G Software. "Working
with Sun, we are continuing our commitment to provide customers with the
latest technologies to improve the software installation process by
integrating support for J2SE 5.0, and jump-starting its adoption by the
thousands of developers who use InstallAnywhere for deploying Java-based
applications."

Pricing and Availability

The J2SE 5.0 platform and JRE are now available for download at
http://www.java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp. For more information on
Java, visit the Sun Developer Network at www.sun.com/developers.

About the Java Community Process

Since its introduction in 1998 as the open, inclusive process to develop and
revise Java technology specifications, reference implementations and
technology compatibility kits, the Java Community Process program has
fostered the evolution of the Java platform in cooperation with the
international Java developer community. The JCP has over 800 company and
individual participants; more than 250 Java technology specifications are in
development in the JCP program, of which 46 percent are in final stages. For
more information on the JCP program, please visit http://jcp.org