It's that time again, another 45 meg download from Sun, 90 with the docs too. Yes the latest beta (2) of J2SE 1.5 is out and ready for you to try.

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp

This is your chance to help assure the future of Java, unless these betas are tested non of these other gadgets like EJB 3, JDO, AspectJ, POJOs will have a good long term future.

You don't have to move everything over to 1.5 and drop 1.4. Simply install it and try out your usual apps and development projects. If you've got some time try writing a bit of code using some of the new features...

For a good overview of the features try this: http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/releases/j2se15/

-John Davies-
Java Evangelist
CTO, C24

JDK 1.5 rocks!!!
Can't wait to see the next generation of frameworks and lightweight containers to leverage new generics and annotation features!!!

MC

Since jdk 1.1 there is not much improvement done on java docs. Most methods have a one liner explaination- no examples etc. I hope they improve it with this version.
The lack of good java docs is reflected on most of the java forums when u see people posting very simple qurestions or peices of code which are very trivial but not explained thru SUN documentation.

For some good examples of Java in general, not necessarily 1.5 try the Java Almanac (http://www.javaalmanac.com/) it's an excellent source of examples. Perhaps someone could work out some way to combine this with the JavaDoc. :-)

Anyone got any other good exmaples sources?

-John Davies-
CTO, C24
London, UK

Compared to .NET docs Java Docs are encyclopedia, beleive me!

Anyone who's used Java's API ref and has been unfortunate enough to have needed to consult .NET SDK docs will know just how crappy they are! One thing Sun certainly got right early on, was the excellent design of Javadoc documentation.

Before anyone brings it up.. MSDN sucks!

Gentelman,

I'm java developer and I love to be it,
but in documentation side MSDN / MSDN Subscription
really rule the world

I didn't like the NetBeans IDE that was shipped with JDK1.4.1_03

The J2SE/NetBeans bundle was recently updated to include J2SE 1.4.2_04 and NetBeans 3.6. Previous bundles included NetBeans 3.6. The new 3.6 release is substantially improved. Here's a review from eweek:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1579413,00.asp

-Steve

If you want the best IDE there is then go for JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA (http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/). It costs money (a few hundred $s) but it will pay for itself in a few days on the basis that you'll be that much more productive. If you're comparing it to Eclipse then payback might take a few weeks but it's still got the lead.

-John-

I still don't comprehend the Sun business model with regards to java - is it simply to sustain a non-intel market for selling boxes?

Anyway, after skimming through the features I'm very excited by this release - particularly JMX, profiling, and the swing improvements.

congrats!