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Lion-O · Guest

I doubt any Java enthusiast would have missed this but naturally the news
about the next major Java release SE6 ('Mustang') can't be missed in this
group:

Java SE6 officially released:

On December 11 Sun has released Java SE6. This version is the replacement for
the current (now previous Wink

) SE5 (1.5.0_10). Many things have been added and
fixed, you can get a complete list on the website(s) mentioned below. But some
of the important enhancements you'll encounter are:

* New security enhancements.

- Next to the addition of extra API's (smart card / JAAS support) Sun has
also finally fixed the commandline tools. For example; keytool won't show
any more passwords. Another good feature is the removal of some
restrictions (2048 RSA keysize limit, restrictions in 3rd party plugins,
etc).

* Scripting support

- The javax.script API has been added which features scripting support, one
of the key features is support for JavaScript.

* JConsole officially supported

- The graphical monitoring tool supporting the JMX API and it allows you to
monitor the JVM. Some keyfeatures are plugin support, dynamic attachements
and a better display / presentation of Mbeans.

There is just too much added to type it all up here, you can get an overview
when looking at the 'new features' URL below. At a first glance Java SE6 looks
like a major improvement, its times like there where I appreciate the support
my IDE provides for using multiple JDK's. Which brings me to:

NB5.5 Visual Webdev pack / C/C++ devpack officially released:

Even though it wasn't announced all over the place NetBeans have released the
Visual Webpack as well as their C/C++ devpack some days ago. According to the
announcement it shouldn't be any problem to install it onto your existing
version but I encountered some very odd problems with regards to dependencies.
After installing the IDE gave me an error noticing that the dependencies for
the css editor weren't met: it needed a more up to date support for JSF.

Eventually I decided to grab the entire IDE from netbeans.org and re-install
all compoenents. This solved all dependencies, but to my surprise the whole IDE
had become more responsive (I use Linux). Whether this is due to some changes
in the initial NB5.5 release or an common issue of plain PEBCAK (Problem Exists
Between Chair And Keyboard) is something I can't answer. Still,
it might be beneficial to give it a try.

Resources:

* Java SE6

Feature story:
http://www.sun.com/2006-1211/feature/index.jsp?intcmp=hp2006dec11_javase6_read

New feature overview: http://java.sun.com/javase/6/webnotes/features.html
Java website: http://java.sun.com/javase/index.jsp
Java download: http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp
JDK6 documentation: http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/

* NetBeans 5.5

NB new devpacks announcement:
http://www.netbeans.org/community/news/index.html#970

Visual webpack: http://www.netbeans.org/products/visualweb/
C/C++ pack: http://www.netbeans.org/products/cplusplus/
Download: http://www.netbeans.org/products/

--
Groetjes, Peter

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