Sun just launched the long-waited J2SE 5. Some screenshots for the new Ocean L&F here and here and also here. Moreover, Netbeans 4.0 Beta 2 is also ready to be tested.
Java 2 Standard Edition 5 is out
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Is it just me or is the Ocean L&F particularly ugly ?
I guess I don’t like gradients on buttons…
Is this the new default look under Linux ?
I like gradients on controls, and it is clean and soft. But they could have make the borders a little rounded. Everything looks to squared. I know they tried to keep the same dimensions than in metal for backward compatibility, but some little curves could make a difference some times.
Still doesn’t look *nice* or even *good*.
Altough it’s certainly an improvement over that old clunky look.
OK… the first screenshot (showing the (new default) Ocean theme of the Java LookAndFeel doesn’t do it justice.
Here are some alternatives: http://jroller.com/page/mz/20040528
These also show a major feature in the new Java 5.0 (the Monitoring capabilities, that allow monitoring the state of the JVM (even remotely) in an extremely easy way). The shown app is JConsole and allows you to view what the GC is doing, and more.
New Java!
Actually I downloaded 5.0 a few weeks back and noticed that it loads faster and Swing is a lot more responsive. This is on Mandrake Linux 10, by the way
I thought we were awaiting v1.5? Did they go from 1.5 to 5, or am I missing something?
Yes, the name was changed from v1.5 to 5 a while back.
I recomend everyone using more than 1 swing app at a time to switch asap. It loads MUCH faster (at least in 5.0 RC).
Java had a demanding lead 2 years ago. It now looks like developers will go for the more friendlier language (i.e. .Net not specifically C#) if it solves their needs with minimal program and ease of readability.
Java doesn’t offer any of that 2.5 years ago and Java still doesn’t off that today.
You can’t look at
for (Integer i : list) { … }
and say that is a foreach loop, if you are not familure with the language and need to look up how the keywords work, however in C#.
foreach (Int32 i in list) { … }
You can look up the keyword foreach and quickly understand what is going on.
I think Java needs to step up to the plate and realize they can’t lay down and expect people to continue to use their product.
It took C# to force, enums, object indexors, boxing, etc. to get Java to get off the a$$ and get going.
i for one am very happy with the new GUI and think it looks very nice, although it can do with a few small adjustments, but its much better then the old look, very nice and responsive.
sadly i am have trouble playing .wav files in java 1.5(5.0) on linux, just getting cracking sound, did’nt have the problem with 1.4.2_04.
but overall i’m very pleased with the new faster responding gui.
>You can’t look at
>for (Integer i : list) { … }
>and say that is a foreach loop, if you are not familure with
>the language
Sooooo… you’re saying that Java is bad because people need to know basic Java before they can understand source code written in it? I’m not an expert… but doesn’t that definition render *any* language useless?
Or do you know what this code does without knowing the language:
(ToString[#1])&/@ Table[x,{x,1,10}](ToString[#1]<>”.”)&/@ Table[x,{x,1,10}]
On the topic of catching up to C#:
C# 1.1 doesn’t have a Closure-like concept (Java: Anonymous classes) or Generics (Java: Generics, GJ), though these features will be added in 2.0 (Anonymous functions and Generics). So… who’s playing catch up? Answer: Everyone is; One side has some features that get popular, the other side incorporates them too… it’s healthy competition.
Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE Java. I’m excited 5.0 came out today. But their look and feels look like crap. Ocean isn’t much of an improvement. The best laf I’ve come across is Alloy. Check it out: http://www.incors.com/lookandfeel/.
I tried jed few times.. but i’ve been spoiled. i can’t stand the harsh looking fonts. i want my antialiasing!
with antialiasing i can put more chars on the screen and make them more readable, so it’s a purely productive feature for me.
come on.
Its free, its skinnable, it looks GOOD! http://www.l2fprod.com/
Here is a site that has some skins for it: http://www.javootoo.com/
I believe people are missing the points:
1- JAva 5 has much much more things than new look and feel and language changes. check the full list if you wish. i wonder what was the real purpose of OSNews mentioning only Ocean L&F when the subject is a complete new java?
Read here for the real changes:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/relnotes/features.html
2- Ocean L&F does not have so many changes over Metal, becuase of a reason. they wanted to make the default theme as similar as possible in terms of fonts, sizes and feel because of the complete bacward compatibility. On the other hnd, by introducing Synth technology users can create new L&F much easier than before.
Quote..
“One of the primary goals with Ocean was to Not Break Stuff. So now adjustments were made to the l&f which would have broken existing applications; the sizing of widgets is the same and everything should just work out of the box; it’s just the skin of that l&f that’s different (and, I think you’ll agree, better). In addition to simply updating the cross-platform Java look & feel, the Swing team wanted to make it easier for developers to create newer, cooler look & feels for their applications.”
At least Sun is producing full products with full support for a lot of platforms, not half as* 0.1.23.45 versions of .Net semi-clones
This may be totally unrelated, but immediately after installing Java 1.5, but not JRE 1.5 (corporate reasons – don’t ask), my cookies for Internet Exploder were erased.
Use SWT.
Sun needs to get a clue.. Swing is fugly. I heard Sun worked on the font engine, but it still looks crummy. IBM has something good with SWT. Eclipse is absolutely amazing. The real innovation in the last 2 years has been through the Apache Group, JBoss, and IBM in my opinion.
Java generics and .NET Generics have some major differences. .NET Generics are supported by the .NET VM(2.0) so there are actual major performance increases. Java generics are just supported by the compiler so they are just to make it is easier for the programmer. I’m more interested in generic support in the Java VM. In order to do that I read they would need to break compatibility. I’m not big on understanding java compatibility but, does Java 1.4 run Java 5 Applications? If so, that is great in some ways but I think eventually Sun will have to break compatibility in order to keep up.
> User SWT
I’ll go with wx4j.
which respect perfectly look and feel on every OS
GTK on linux/unix, Aqua on apple and Something nativ on Windows98/2k/XP.
http://www.wx4j.org/
swing is better looking than before, but still not adequate for nice looking, nativ and OS themeable apps.
it’s like tk and python.
I agree that “normal” font rendering in normal Java apps is fugly…I’m one of the ones who like antialiasing on the fonts. Anyway, JDK5 has a command line switch to force it on.
-Dswing.aatext=true
NetBeans looks alot better that way IMO. Cheers!
…is a fantastic combination to easily build SWT apps, which look great regardless of platform – because it uses the native look & feel of the OS.
…for all those folks complaining about how bad Swing looks.
I’m a long time C# developer now working in Java/J2EE, getting my feet wet, learning the ropes, etc. I was really impressed by SWT…the cross-platform action puts Windows Forms to shame, IMO. Windows Forms is great…on Windows…don’t get me wrong…but I can’t run Win Forms on Linux natively in a SWT-type fashion yet…
I’ve been using the JDK 1.5.0 since the release candidate, so far sooooo gooood!
This is great, but AOL is already at version 10! Are Sun’s marketing executives aware of this? Java is being trounced by a lowly internet provider! This cannot be! Quick, declare this a release candidate, and provide a new version that fixes the “versioning bug” and updates it Java 6 Version 20! Only then will Sun be able to maintain their lead over the market for any reasonable amount of time.
My personal favorite pluggable look and feel is the JGoodies Look. Nothing too blocky or ugly, but does not overuses gradients either.
http://www.jgoodies.com/index.html
Just installed manually on my Gentoo and some focus issues have disapearred, it is faster, in konqueror it use the KDE look (kde api ?) instead of the java one, great news !
how’s memory consumption of the new Java 5?
can’t wait it to finish downloading!
Like it.
Used it.
Now love it.
Sun please give us more.
-gc
PS: The bug count so far as I can tell is pretty low so far so I won’t go on my Open Source yadda yadda about the virtual machine…etc.etc….at least I get the source for the libs….thats pretty nice.
I don’t like the new look. I’m not sure about the feel, since I haven’t tested it. The look looks amateurish and dated. It reminds me of the first generation Motif look. SUN can do better.
The Ocean theme does look a lot better then the old Metal theme though.
Yes, the Ocean theme is the default. But it is easy to change either programatically or at a system level. And for Linux, Java 1.5 comes with a GTK theme that integrates well with GNOME.
“Sun needs to get a clue.. Swing is fugly. I heard Sun worked on the font engine, but it still looks crummy.”
So you are one of those people who still hasn’t figured out how to turn anti-aliasing on and change to a system LNF in Java I assume?
The “Swing is fugly” argument is so worn out. And it doesn’t even apply anymore. I think you are the one who needs to get a clue.
What’s ugly about this?
http://www.swt-designer.com/
Nice to see that the new and improved java have been released.
Anybody knows if Bug 4799499 have been fixed. You know the bug that makes it impossible to input certain characters from non US keyboards. (What characters vary from country to country)
The bug is in the top 25 list of bugs, users want fixed but just the same it hasn’t been fixed for about 4 years. Please tell me that it is fixed.
It would be nice if they had, I would love to use java for desktop applications. Not to mention that this bug have made Netbeans useless in many European countries. No wonder Eclipse is gaining ground.
Have you tried this?
xmodmap -e ‘keycode 113 = Multi_key’
where 113 is the keycode for your right Alt key. Then press right Alt, then apostrophe, then a vowel to get an accented vowel.
Erm, sorry. That’s a workaround (and a bad one), not a solution.
Believe it or not,people outside the anglo-american language sphere have to type characters outside the ASCII-7 set *several times a minute*. And having to go Alt-something when native apps behave differently is hardly a good thing to recommend.
heard of OpenGL based pipeline for Java 2D
can be switched on via commandline flag on Solaris, Linux and Win32.
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/2d/flags.html#opengl
SWT is not Java’s default toolkit and does not ship with J2SE 5.
I havn’t tested that workaround in java, so I don’t know if it works. It is totally useless though, it renders it impossible to write ~ $ and many other charaters in none java applications and you really can’t expect your customers to remap their keyboards so that your java app runs OK when application written in other languages run OK.
As I see it, Sun is not serious about java on the desktop. This bug have been around for over four years. Even if I certainly could write some applications where the non working characters was rarely used. But then I wouln’t really know what market I could expect it to work for as this bug hits various European keyboards differently. This essentially a showstopper for java on the European market.
I expect that by now people use QT or C# if they nee cross platform desktop applications.
“Sun needs to get a clue.. Swing is fugly. I heard Sun worked on the font engine, but it still looks crummy.”
So you are one of those people who still hasn’t figured out how to turn anti-aliasing on and change to a system LNF in Java I assume?
The “Swing is fugly” argument is so worn out. And it doesn’t even apply anymore. I think you are the one who needs to get a clue.
Errr….. How can antialiasing be turned on by a user under Linux and Windows ?
“Errr….. How can antialiasing be turned on by a user under Linux and Windows ?”
Simple: java MyApp -Dswing.aatext=true
> > Errr….. How can antialiasing be turned on by a user
> > under Linux and Windows ?”
>
> Simple: java MyApp -Dswing.aatext=true
Actually it’s: java -Dswing.aatext=true MyApp
“Actually it’s: java -Dswing.aatext=true MyApp”
Either way will work. Java does not care about order when it parses command line arguments.
Interestingly enough, they still haven’t done anything about Java’s dog performance when it comes to reading and parsing files.
I have a text file that is approximately 78,000 lines, and part of what I need to do is simply count the number of lines in the file and then return that number. I wrote up quick test programs in C, Python, and Java:
C: About 0.5 seconds to process entire file.
Python: About 0.75 seconds to process entire file.
Java: Nearly 2.5 seconds to process entire file.
So much for Java being faster than Python. I really wish Sun would do something about the slow performance when it comes to file reading.
> > > Simple: java MyApp -Dswing.aatext=true
> >
> > Actually it’s: java -Dswing.aatext=true MyApp
>
> Either way will work. Java does not care about order when
> it parses command line arguments.
No, the former will NOT work. Of course java cares about the order of the command line arguments.
All parameters after the program name will be given as parameters not to java but to the specified program.
E.g., “java MyApp -Dswing.aatext=true” will execute
MyApp.main(new String[]{“-Dswing.aatext=true”})
and the text will not be antialiased.
Oops. Duh. Yeah. You are right. The -Dswing option does need to come first. Don’t know what I was thinking at the time.