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Java SE Update N Coming


Seeks to fix problems on Java client side

By Alex Handy
October 30, 2007 — 
Java SE is being prepared to take on the role of the core version of the platform, according to engineers at Sun Microsystems.

Sun is rebuilding the Java experience for consumers, with work proceeding on Java SE Update N, which aims to fix the many problems consumers have had with Java on the client side. Chet Haase, Sun's Java SE client architect in the client software group, said in late October that the coming client-focused update will address many of the classic Java problems. The problems include slow startup time, trouble with version control, and the bloat of the runtime environment. In preparation for the coming of JavaFX, a strictly consumer-targeted interface paradigm, Haase said that Sun needed to fix the user experience for the Java Runtime Environment. But that’s just the beginning.

James Gosling, vice president and Sun fellow, said that the forthcoming Java SE Update N is the first step toward converging everything on the Java SE specification. He admitted that this is “going to take years. We've come up with a strategy that lets us segregate the universe into things that change quickly, and things that change slowly, and we've come up with a developer story that addresses them all,” said Gosling.

That means Java ME and Java EE are destined for the dust heap. Their functionalities, however, will continue on in the form of modular additions to the Java SE platform. Gosling made it clear that this move is about the simplification of the platform, not the removal of any capabilities. He emphasized that this move toward a single Java would not happen overnight.

Update N Beta in December
The first step on that larger, longer road to a single Java will begin at the end of Q1 2008, when Sun is expected to release Java SE Update N. A beta of that update will arrive in December, built with a new focus on the client-side problems that have plagued the language since its creation. The update seeks to speed loading times for Java applets, and to bring in a common method of polling the version information for the installed client-side environment.

“Update N is about improving the consumer experience. We're fixing some issues in the consumer experience with the Java platform. [We asked,] ‘If we're going to really hit hard in the consumer space, what are some of the issues we need to address?’” said Haase.

That means a new installer, faster load times and an easier path for developers to identify the version installed on the end user's machine. Despite the maturity of Java, Haase stated that developers have lacked a reliable method for detecting the version of Java that the client uses to compile and run an application.

One target for the Java SE Update N is Web advertising. Haase admitted that applets and Web ads rarely, if ever, use Java today. “Applets are not there in the Web ad space because [they] really need to start up very quickly. We created a project called ‘quick starter,’” Haase continued, which performs such actions as “preloading the disk cache so when you run Java, it starts up in the time someone would expect for very lightweight applications.”

All of this work, said Haase, will right the wayward ship that has been consumer Java. Haas and Gosling hope that the work beginning in Update N will lay the foundation for the coming of JavaFX, Sun's consumer-targeted development and presentation environment. That environment should also arrive in its first full form around the same time that the final version of Java SE Update N arrives, but Haas cautioned that JavaFX is currently running on its own development cycle, independent of the Java SE platform.


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