Java 5.0 Flood!

java-programmer, Java 5.0 Flood! Since J2SE 5.0 has just come out, I'd thought I'd post a some links and
highlights as written by the media around the internet.

---

** Sun ships Java upgrade, focuses on ease of use **
The next release is due out by early 2006

Highlights:
- "J2SE 5.0 is an important step for Java in its ongoing battle against
Microsoft Corp.'s .Net development environment", said Stephen O'Grady, an
analyst at RedMonk Inc. in Bath, Maine. "The streamlined start-up times and
a friendlier graphical user interface should be especially welcome additions
to Java users", he said.

"Particularly for Java applications on the client, it has taken a while for
them to start up," O'Grady said. "That has been a problem. Also, from a
user's perspective, [Sun] has updated the look and feel. It looks good. It's
cleaner, and it's more modern."

http://www.computerworld.com/developmenttopics/development/java/story/0,1080
1,96346,00.html?nas=APP-96346

---
** Sun Releases New Version of Java for Servers, Desktops **

Highlights:
- In addition, Austin said J2SE 5.0 will spark the creation of new tools for
developers, particularly new profiling and analysis tools. "We have a cool
technology called byte code insertion, so now you can profile in real-time."
J2SE 5.0 also enables developers to "pre-template" code, "so other analyzing
tools can read the metadata," he said.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1664580,00.asp

---
** A New Direction for Java **

Highlights:
- The result: "Java's beginning to wend its way into some pretty interesting
places," such as automobiles, said Schwartz. "I asked an automobile
manufacturer, 'What's the price at which, if you could sell online services
to the automobile, you could give away the automobile for free?' Without
batting an eye, that auto company's CFO said, '$220,'" Schwartz told his
JavaOne audience. "Now think about that. "Do you know a 17-year old who
would pay $5 to download a custom horn tone to his car? I do," he said.

- "It's not Sun thinking about putting services into an automobile, it's
Siemens and BMW," Schwartz said, returning to center stage after a
presentation in which a new BMW rolled out with an advanced Java-based
navigation and entertainment system.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1624150,00.asp

---

** Screenshots of J2SE 5.0 Look&Feels **

Windows XP File Chooser Dialog (from j5.0 beta)
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/releases/j2se15/15art2.jpg

Redhat Linux File Open Dialog (from j5.0 beta)
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/releases/j2se15/15art1.jpg

The new Ocean Theme
http://www.dubh.org/jdevimages/jdev_ocean_large.png

---

Comments on Synth
Synth is apparently a 'bare-bones' L&F designed specifically to allow
non-programmers to turn it into a custom L&F using simple XML. The article
"The Synth Look and Feel" in the next section gets more into the details.
An example XML file is also presented below. For an overview of the idea
behind Swing 5.0 see this article:

** Tiger on the Desktop **
http://weblogs.java.net/blog/chet/archive/2004/09/tiger_on_the_de_1.

** The Synth Look and Feel **

Highlights:

For the anxious, here's a quick example. The following XML code, taken from
example1.xml, defines a style named textfield and binds it to all text
fields in Synth. The result is that text fields look like the one in the
Motivation section.

<synth>
<style id="textfield">
<state>
<color value="white" type="BACKGROUND"/>
</state>
<imagePainter method="textFieldBorder" path="textfieldborder.png"
sourceInsets="5 6 6 7" paintCenter="false"/>
<insets top="5" left="6" bottom="6" right="7"/>
</style>
<bind style="textfield" type="region" key="TextField"/>
</synth>

Here's some code that loads the XML file into Synth and sets the current
look and feel to Synth:

SynthLookAndFeel laf = new SynthLookAndFeel();
laf.load(Example1.class.getResourceAsStream("example1.xml"),
Example1.class);
UIManager.setLookAndFeel(laf);

http://www.javadesktop.org/articles/synth/index.html )

---

l8r, Mike N. Christoff

java-programmer >> Java 5.0 Flood! Michael,

"Michael N. Christoff" <email***@***.com> wrote in message news:<fWD9d.36067$email***@***.com>...
> Since J2SE 5.0 has just come out, I'd thought I'd post a some links and
> highlights as written by the media around the internet.

You forgot my article. I'll never forgive you!. ;-)

SUN releases Java 5 aka 1.5.0
Not just for applets anymore?
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18798

Regards
Fernando