JDBC will be updated to 4.0 in Java SE 6.0 (Mustang) – the most interesting new feature will be the addition of annotation support allowing you to define your queries as annotations. More changes and new features are covered in this article on the onJava.com site.
Interview with Josh Marinacci of Sun’s SwingLabs – java.sun.com
java.sun.com have an interview with Josh Marinacci of Sun’s SwingLabs – in the interview they cover questions about favorite Swing hacks, the future of desktop Java, and the JavaOne famous ‘Aerith’ demo that blew everyone away.
There has definitely been an increasing interest in desktop client applications using Swing over the past several months, and I expect this is being driven by the growing demand for rich client applications. It’s still considerably easier to build a visually rich, full featured, interactive application with Swing than it is with a browser and technologies like AJAX, and I think this is driving renewed interest in Swing and desktop applications.
Feature summary of Sun’s Java App Server Platform Edition 9
Sun have an article on their site summarizing all the new features included in their (long titled) Sun Java App Server Platform Edition 9, which is built on the Glassfish community project to build a Java EE 5 server.
The main technologies in EE5 include:
- Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) 3.0, including a new Persistence API
- JavaServer Faces 1.2 Technology
- Web Services Metadata for the Java Platform 1.0
- Java API for XML-Based Web Services (JAX-WS) 2.0
- Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB) 2.0
- Streaming API for XML (StAX) 1.0
Microsoft thinks .Net has beaten Java?
According to this article on eWeek, , Bob Muglia, Microsoft’s senior VP of Server and Tools business, believes that ‘Microsoft’s .Net platform has outpaced Java, particularly the Java Enterprise Edition, over the past five years to become the development platform of choice for enterprise development.’
I find this hard to believe and would like to see what figures he is basing this statement on. Java usage on large enterprise has never been stronger and is increasing all the time. I rarely hear any mention of any .Net projects, and only know of one or two people (actually, just two) who are actively working with .Net.
Do a simple search around for ‘Java’, or ‘C#’ and/or ‘.Net’ and see what sort of results you get. I guarantee you will find plenty more activity going on connected with Java than you will find .Net. Also, take a look on Monster.com or your job search engine of choice and see what jobs are currently out there. Again, way more Java than .Net.
Tiobe keep a track on the relative populatity of a whole list of programming languages on their site here. They also base their figures on searching the web to collect together figures for available engineers, courses and third party vendors. Their figures are currently showing Java in the top spot with 22% market share, and the closest .Net language, C#, down in 7th with only 3%. Quite how Microsoft gets to believe they have 60% share on enterprise application development is beyond me. This figure seems way out of line with common knowledge.