Poll Results: Developers explain timing of their transition to JDK 1.2

Before the end of November, Sun says it will ship the long-awaited JDK 1.2. Many JavaWorld readers have downloaded beta versions of the new development kit, but when will developers actually use (rather than simply experiment with) JDK 1.2? In our recent reader poll (coinciding with the November cover story detailing how to make the most of this forthcoming JDK release and its new features), we asked, “Will you use JDK 1.2 to develop your projects? When?” Though respondents overwhelmingly indicated plans to switch within 6 months of the release date, their comments highlight several key issues all Java developers and managers should consider before they make the leap to the new JDK.

The numbers

With more than 1,100 votes as of November 2, the breakdown is as follows:

• 57% said they will use JDK 1.2 as soon as it is released
• 22% said they will use JDK within 6 months
• 6% said they will use JDK within 12 months
• 6% said Don’t know/Other
• 3% said they don’t plan on using JDK 1.2
• 2% said they will use JDK within 18 months

A handful of respondents said they’ve already adopted JDK 1.2 — in pre-release form — for at least some projects.

Key issues to consider

Reader comments reveal several concerns of note, which varied depending on the nature of the development projects. Key considerations include stability (avoid bugs), performance (where’s HotSpot?), browser compatibility (will Microsoft support JDK 1.2 with Internet Explorer?), cross-platform availability (Linux, Macintosh), tools support (when will my favorite IDE support 1.2?) and deployment (internal company software vs. commercial/public apps; client vs. server).

The following reader comments reveal why these issues warrant concern among developers. To see all comments from this and other JavaWorld reader polls, head to our archive of past polls. And, of course, don’t forget to voice your opinion in our latest poll.

Writing applications to be released with a JRE there is no problem with using 1.2 as soon as we can.

Swing should be made more stable and faster for people to seriously consider using JDK 1.2. The Swing and 2D APIs are fabulous, but speed and stability are bottlenecks.

Unless Netscape browser can support JDK 1.2 or Java Plug-in allows applet to call JavaScript from the applet (i.e to use netscape.javascript package), we can’t switch to JDK 1.2. Even so, we will like to wait for a while until it becomes more ‘stable.’

Not until Linux version released, which could take a while.

I don’t think I will be using it, judging from the performance of the Swing, those beta graphic (2D and 3D), as well as the Multimedia Framework packages. I find these packages to be too slow for large multimedia application that I am currently developing. It seems to be OK if you are developing those tiny applet utilities one often found on the web.

Java seems to have a slowdown. Microsoft made Java like a second-class language. WHERE THE HACK IS THE HOTSPOT!!????

We are betting on servlets so integration of servlets classes into the main JDK would clean up our environment but the vendors of all the off-the-shelf java components we use are mostly willing to claim support for nothing beyond 1.1.6 so we are going to sit tight for a while.

I’m just waiting for my IDE tool vendor to update their framework to JDK 1.2 (specifically, javax.swing). I can’t switch until they switch.

Will slowly move over to 1.2. Right now, since most of my development efforts in company go towards browser-based applets (networking mostly, and of course, servlets) will have to get people to get some workable plug-ins before making switch over. For applications, can move swiftly to 1.2.

Just waiting on the Plug-in … Swing will work well on our intranet — our corporate PCs tend to be 350-400 Mhz

I was planning on going exclusively with 1.2 for all future work. One area that has caused some concern, however, is the fact that Swing is not completely thread-safe.

The use of JDK 1.2 will depend on how soon it is integrated into browseres and/or how soon the Java Plug-in gets distributed to users.

The rich set of APIs make it impossible to not use it as soon as possible

I want new JDK 1.2 plug-in for Netscape and Explorer [browsers].

If anyone can show me a real application, something equivalent to Microsoft Office, (not those little tiny applets I see people write these days), then I may consider using JDK 1.2. Have you ever tried to write a real graphics application with Java 2D and get acceptable results? Its performance is unacceptably slow.

I will use 1.2 for all my application and server-side projects. I will not, however, use it for applets until Netscape and Microsoft can get caught up, or until the Java Plug-in becomes ubiquitous.

Depends when I can expect “most” customers to have 1.2-capable browsers installed. Sigh.

How about other options like “Yes, when the tool vendors provide support”, or “Yes, when there is browser support” (and yes, I know about the Plug-in).

Personally I will be using it as soon as it is released, however my company, after a lengthy investigation, has decided to use Microsofts VJ++ 6 and the MFC. While this is undoubtably a good development environment with excellent tools, it does limit the target audience to those running the Windows OS.

I will use JDK 1.2 once it’s stable no matter any browser supports it or not . As my goal is building stand alone applications, which I can develop and port in ease.

I would like to see Microsoft implement the JDK 1.2 within their browser because it is strategically important for many companies in web development. I would also like to see the JVM 1.2 ported to other platforms asap. If the JVM is not ported to other platforms then the goal of Java, “Write once, run anywhere,” is seriously at stake.