Java 6 Available for Download

This morning Sun officially released Java 6 for download after over two years of development. The Java 6 development cycle has been the most open of any Java release with weekly builds available to the public and extensive collaboration between Sun and over 330 external developers. Sun has worked with over 160 companies to ensure backwards compatibility, stability and optimum performance of applications running on the JVM. Java 6 included a number of focus areas. From the press release:

Web 2.0

The Java SE 6 software helps accelerate developer innovation for web-based, dynamic and online collaboration applications by including a new framework and developer APIs to allow mixing of Java technology with dynamically typed languages, such as PHP, Python, Ruby and JavaScript(TM) technology. Sun has also created a collection of scripting engines at: http://scripting.dev.java.net and pre-configured the Rhino JavaScript engine in the Java SE 6 platform. In addition, the Java SE 6 software includes a full web services client stack and supports the latest web services specifications, such as JAX-WS 2.0, JAXB 2.0, STAX and JAXP.

Diagnostics, Monitoring, and Management

The Java SE 6 platform provides expanded tools for diagnosing, managing and monitoring applications and also includes support for the new NetBeans Profiler 5.5 and for Solaris(TM) DTrace, a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework for the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS). In addition, the Java SE 6 software further increases ease of development with tool interface updates for the Java Virtual Machine (JVM (TM)) and the Java Platform Debugger Architecture (JPDA).

Enterprise Desktop

The Java SE 6 release delivers significant improvements to the desktop, which enable Java applications to integrate even more seamlessly into the end-user experience. For rapid visual development of interactive applications, the Java SE 6 platform includes a new layout manager component, based on the NetBeans GUI Builder (formerly code named Matisse). The Java SE 6 software also provides enhanced support for the upcoming version of Windows Vista.

InfoQ discussed the Java 6 release with Bill Curci, Product Marketing Manager for Java Platform Standard Edition and Danny Coward, Java SE Platform Lead. Among the items they highlighted:

• Java 6 is faster overall than previous versions of Java and requires less performance tuning out of the box. There has also been lots of work to speed up startup time with the JVM including class data sharing.
• On the desktop Java 6 includes support for Windows Vista and the Swing gray rectangle buffering issue has been addressed.
• Java 6 features expanded diagnostics and monitoring including dynamic JMX attachment to running systems with no special setup in advance.
• The JavaDB based on Apache Derby has been included to provide a relational database with the distribution.

A good summary of the main features included in Java 6 can be found in InfoQ's previous coverage "Top 10 New Things You Need to Know About Java 6".