Subscribe to my feedJavapolis 2006
Yesterday, I attended Javapolis 2006 along with a few friends. Javapolis is one of the biggest Java conferences worldwide. With the exception of the rebellious Microsoft stand, everyone was there to share their love for Java, and even though I'm not a huge fan of Java, I must say that I like what they have in mind for future releases.
Java Performance Tuning
When we arrived at MetroPolis, we were showered with gifts and gadgets. When we finally made it to the coffee table, it was almost time to head for the speaker rooms where we were to attend a class in Java performance tuning. The first half was interesting, they showed us how to set up a testing environment, how to find the bottleneck in an application, and what the signs were for issues often overlooked by developers. After the break, they went for a more hands-on approach, where the attendees were to optimise an application distributed by USB sticks. Unfortunately, none of us had a Windows laptop with them (my trial of Vista expired and is now quite useless), and they only distributed BAT-files for the compilation and execution of their test app. We left the room disappointed, looking for another presentation, and finally decided on RIA using Swing - Part 1.
RIA using Swing - Part 1
This is where the magic happened. First off, the speakers showed us some new widgets, some innovative ones but mostly things that have been available in other toolkits for ages. Still, these are much needed features that will make GUI development much easier in future versions of swing. Next, a French developer called Romain Guy showed some of the features of the SwingX library from JDesktop. Transparency, mirror-effect, blur, and a hand full of other filters are now easy to create and can be used everywhere you can imagine. Note that JDesktop is an open source initiative mentored by Sun Microsystems to enhance their swing toolkit, so any of you can add widgets and features that might be included in future versions of swing!
RIA using Swing - Part 2
After the lunch break, the presentation continued, and we were thought the basics of creating custom Swing components, their caveats and how some of them were being fixed in the new JDK 6 and JDesktop. Most of this was pretty basic and just consequences of the design and history of Swing. Afterwards, we were given an overview of easy ways to deploy a Java application, and a glimpse at the future of Java. The most important improvements in JDK 7, as it stands now, are:
- Platform independent UI-look
- Faster load time
- General performance boost
The platform independent graphical user interface is something I'm very much looking forward to, because as a part-time Mac user it is very annoying to have ugly Swing interfaces, no menu at the top of my screen and a silly Java icon in my dock.