Comments on: Java 6 Released, Did you Notice? http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2006/12/12/java-6-released-did-you-notice/ My Experiences with Software Development Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:44:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: brennan http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2006/12/12/java-6-released-did-you-notice/#comment-16036 brennan Thu, 14 Dec 2006 21:42:35 +0000 http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2006/12/12/java-6-released-did-you-notice/#comment-16036 I agree with you that it is useful to upgrade when and only when there is a tangible reason to do so. The .NET and Java camps are diverging a lot more lately than they were 2 years ago when everyone was saying C# was just Java with a few changes so a direct comparison is not what it once was. But when .NET 2.0 was launched it included new language and framework features, Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 which were all augmented the platform with the goal of making the developers work day easier. The reasons to upgrade were compelling. I know I cannot expect the same from the Java community, but it would be great to see Sun work more closely with the likes of IBM, JetBrains, the Eclipse team and the strongest open source projects (Apache) to target a major release date with a significant beta testing period so that a release date can be targeted and then work towards adding IDE support for the new features as well as prepare training material for the community. With all of the great new features available in Java 6 it will be too bad that many teams will not even move to adopt it. I agree with you that it is useful to upgrade when and only when there is a tangible reason to do so. The .NET and Java camps are diverging a lot more lately than they were 2 years ago when everyone was saying C# was just Java with a few changes so a direct comparison is not what it once was. But when .NET 2.0 was launched it included new language and framework features, Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 which were all augmented the platform with the goal of making the developers work day easier. The reasons to upgrade were compelling. I know I cannot expect the same from the Java community, but it would be great to see Sun work more closely with the likes of IBM, JetBrains, the Eclipse team and the strongest open source projects (Apache) to target a major release date with a significant beta testing period so that a release date can be targeted and then work towards adding IDE support for the new features as well as prepare training material for the community. With all of the great new features available in Java 6 it will be too bad that many teams will not even move to adopt it.

]]> By: Geoff Lane http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2006/12/12/java-6-released-did-you-notice/#comment-16035 Geoff Lane Thu, 14 Dec 2006 21:30:30 +0000 http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2006/12/12/java-6-released-did-you-notice/#comment-16035 While I agree with you that there was not a lot of noise about the release, I think there are some very exciting things in Java 6. One of the big ones is the inclusion of a full-blown pluggable implementation of a Scripting framework. I would say at best it's a mixed blessing that there are still a lot of people using older versions. Most people are up to 1.4, but why upgrade if things work? I'm glad that Sun has continued to support (even if only peripherally) all of the old versions for so long. People/companies can then upgrade based on merit, need and cost as opposed to just jumping to the latest thing. While I agree with you that there was not a lot of noise about the release, I think there are some very exciting things in Java 6. One of the big ones is the inclusion of a full-blown pluggable implementation of a Scripting framework.

I would say at best it's a mixed blessing that there are still a lot of people using older versions. Most people are up to 1.4, but why upgrade if things work? I'm glad that Sun has continued to support (even if only peripherally) all of the old versions for so long. People/companies can then upgrade based on merit, need and cost as opposed to just jumping to the latest thing.

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