Java Launcher 2.1 released
(1) Launching java applications and applets by double-clicking class files in Windows explorer.
(2) Launching java source code and class hierarchy by right-clicking class files in Windows explorer.
(3) Creating Windows exe files for Java applications with user icon, arguments and manifest files
(4) Creating executable Jar files for Java applications.
Concurrency: Executors
Concurrency is without a doubt one of the most haunting issues developers face when programming in Java. Building a clear concurrency model in an application can bring the most confident programmer to a state of humility. Java 5 was recently released, as I'm sure all of you know, and with it they shipped to those of us out here in the real world a whole slew of classes meant to help deal with with concurrency. For the most part, they took Doug Lea's concurrency utilities, polished them up a bit, designed them around generics, and sent them in to the wild. Anyone that has read Doug's book knows the man has a solid understanding of concurrency concerns. Likewise, anyone that read his book probably realized just how little they knew about concurrency concerns before reading it...
GUI Tester Frameworks, do you actually use them ?
JavaLobby Thread: I used to test my GUI application manually. This seems to be OK for small GUIs, but as they get complicated, I find it very tedious, time consuming and degrade productivity. I recently reviewed some GUI testing tools like Abbot and JFCUnit and can not wait to integrate them into my programming activities...
Working with Sound
The initial version of Java, released in 1996, had very limited support for sound and sound devices. Your options were limited to a couple formats, such as .AU and .WAV files. As Java evolved, so did its multimedia capabilities. Sound evolved through a very low-level API, the Java Sound API, that provided "support for audio operations such as playback and capture (recording), mixing, MIDI sequencing, MIDI synthesis in an extensible, flexible framework." The Java Sound API empowered the programmer to do almost anything with sound, but at a cost: it was hard to program against. Similar initiatives emerged for digital video, followed, finally, by the Java Media Framework...
Swing Framework-A-Thon
In what appears to be the lull before a storm, I have been taking time to investigate Swing client-side frameworks to prepare myself for the impending crisis. A fairly large-scale rewrite of a legacy front-end is in the design phases. I recognize that several others have walked this path before me. The problem, however, is that either these explorers have been focussed on a small subtopic of the vast realm of desktop Java or have started some worthy initiatives but have not reached or shared a conclusion that can serve fellow navigators...
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