Java update in the works

SAN FRANCISCO — Although Sun Microsystems has yet to ship Version 1.4 of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), the Web services-enabled implementation of the platform, the company already has a blueprint for the follow-up release that focuses on ease of development, said Sun’s John Fowler, CTO of software.

Version 1.5 of both J2EE and Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) will include features such as metadata and generics, Fowler said during an interview Wednesday at the JavaOne conference here. There is no release date set for Version 1.5.

The metadata function will enable developers to hide boilerplate code by providing a simple set of declarations, Fowler said. Generics enable declaration and reuse of common data types.

Sun at JavaOne this week announced availability of Beta 2 of the J2EE 1.4 SDK. The release of J2EE 1.4 is due later this year, according to Sun.

“Basically, Java and Web services merge in [Version] 1.4,” said Mark Bauhaus, Sun vice president of Java Web Services, at JavaOne. Sun is awaiting release of the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) Basic Profile for deploying Web services so it can include it in J2EE 1.4.

Although there are versions of Java tailored for card, mobile, desktop, and enterprise use for development purposes, Sun wants to present Java as a unified platform in the marketplace.

Sun at the show announced that J2SE 1.4.2, intended for desktops, is in beta release and will be generally available for free download at the end of the month. It features improved startup time and OpenGL support for enhanced rendering.

Sun also announced that the Sun ONE Studio 5, Standard Edition development tool and NetBeans 3.5 open source tool set are available.

Sun ONE Studio 5 features tighter integration with Sun ONE Application Server 7 and performance enhancements such as the ability to manage enterprise-scaled Java applications, according to Sun. NetBeans 3.5 offers new modules for debugging, tag libraries, and monitoring HTTP requests.