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Prepare yourself for what's new and different in the forthcoming JDK 1.2 release

Core Java continues to grow and grow, but you'll be ready for the new release -- with <em>JavaWorld</em>'s detailed analysis of all the additions

By John Zukowski, JavaWorld.com, 11/01/98

Soon, Sun Microsystems will be releasing the FCS (first customer ship) version of JDK 1.2 for Windows NT 4.0, Windows 95/98, and Sun Solaris 2.5.1/2.6 for both Intel x86 and SPARC. This is the first non-beta version of the 1.2 Java Development Kit (JDK) and Java Runtime Environment (JRE). According to Gina Centoni, group manager for the Java Platform at Sun, "the release is scheduled for the end of November."

With this release of the JDK comes a slew of changes that should keep Java technology developers, book authors, and trainers (not to mention Java technology magazine authors and editors) busy upgrading our knowledge sets, books, and training materials (and articles) for some time to come. While some pieces of the new version (most notably Swing) have been available for more than a year now, significant changes have crept into the latest beta version of the software, 1.2 beta 4. We'll bring you up to speed with these changes now, so you'll be ready to make the most of them when JDK 1.2 hits the street.

And, if the hype is true, this is one package you'll want to be prepared for. "JDK 1.2 is the most significant delivery of Java technology thus far," Centoni says. "Based on customer feedback, it provides a completed platform that includes essential features for development of solutions in the Enterprise." According to Dr.Simon Moores, president of The Java Forum, "The new 1.2 features represent an evolutionary step from a cool programming language to a serious preparatory technology, capable of supporting the wired infrastructure of the early twenty-first century."

Centoni specified several key features that contribute to the merit of JDK 1.2:

• The addition of the Java 2D API
• Significant enhancements to the security model
• The pluggable VM architecture that will support the HotSpot VM
• Advancements to the Java Foundation Classes
• Enhancements designed to improve performance and stability

The changes offered in the 1.2 JDK fit into about four categories. We'll look into each of these categories in some detail, demonstrate the new capabilities, and prepare you to take advantage of them.

• Development and runtime environment changes
• Standard tool changes
• Standard library enhancements
• Standard library expansion

We'll also look at a number of non-Core Java packages, and point out JDK 1.1/JDK 1.2 compatibility issues you should be aware of.

Development and runtime environment changes

Developers will run across the first set of changes quickly. The basic environment configuration has changed. Most of the worry related to modifying the CLASSPATH environment variable is gone, both for development and runtime (end-user) environments. And you can forget about the classes.zip file that stored all the Java class files. That, too, is gone. The jre command also is gone, as it was just an alternate way of starting something with java.

CLASSPATH settings
What's this? No more setting of CLASSPATH? No more classes.zip file? Here's the scoop: With JDK 1.1, initial installation required you to add the bin directory under the JDK installation directory to your PATH environment variable. That isn't a problem and hasn't changed with JDK 1.2, assuming you want the compiler and other tools in your path. It's the next step that's changed.

 

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