Choose your Java Wisely

Java has come along a long way. Many would agree with this. I did not until the Java 1.5 "Tiger" hit me. The tiger had several new features, and more importantly, it has new syntax. Six major upgrades that the tiger presents are certainly the generics, enhanced for loop, autoboxing (unboxing), improvement on Typesafe enum, Static import and the metadata. Of course there are many more, which can be found at java's official site. Out of these six, at least four would be used in my daily "programming" life. From java 1.1 to 1.4, it seemed more like new frills were simply added. It felt like earning more brownie points when you downloaded the newer version. But should I start using 1.5 immediately, maybe not.

The developers and programmers (if you distinguish between them) are left with one great dilemma (me too). It certainly is as to which version to use when preparing software in java. This problem hides itself under the carpet when you are programming for a specific client with a specific system where you can get it upgrade on site, but when the app is going to be used by Mr. Williams from South Africa and Ms. Lee from Japan, you really have to give a thought as to whether your app is going to run on both the systems (that is why java was made in the first place, isn't it?). I've always had the latest version of the sdk, yet I would try and target compiling in a lower possible version, so that even those people would be able to use the apps, who were, well, frozen in time and didn't go up the "version ladder". For e.g., ordinary applets, by me and my company, in most of the cases would be compiled in java 1.1, so that no user ends up waiting for an hour before the plugin for the latest version is downloaded and installed (get yourself a coffee if your yawning). For e.g., once on a tour, I happened to visit some site in a cyber café, which said that I needed to install java plugin 1.4 to view the page correctly (apparently, cyber cafes don't bother much about upgrading java), and when I did, it turned out to be a stupid advertisement (Ahhh! What agony!). Of course, over a period of time, you expect the users to have gone to a level of higher java plugin courtesy other company's applets, but just to be sure?

Well, so this "dilemma" is real and has to be looked after (you don't stand a chance if you don't). Many a times in java forums, you'll find beginners with the problem of "applet not initializing" and when the compiling is targeted for 1.1, it runs. Preferably, developers should have the latest version (despite the huge bandwidth it's going to cost you to download it) and they should try and keep their apps designed, if possible, for lower versions for a universal application. Although, this might not necessarily be imposed for a long time, but certainly try and keep your apps designed by the java 1.4 specifications for a few weeks, till most of the users catch on with the tiger. This should also give you sufficient time to upgrade your programming ability version also. A recent survey about java's versions had about 260 respondents out of which about 15% didn't know that java had versions, 8% preferred java as the good old java (can't believe it, me neither), 29% were happy, 32% wanted newer versions but wanted the syntax of older versions to remain and only the bugs being killed and the rest were too confused to have an opinion.

On this note, its now entirely up to you to decide which is your cup of java. I've just got a book to learn to tame the tiger and I'll be using java 1.4 till I tame 1.5 good. So, I think it'll be around October, when I start using 1.5 hoping (with crossed fingers) that most of the users by then would be roaring with it.

I hope that this small article would help you make a decision about which version of java to use.

Shashank is the founder and administrator of the java apps rating site - thejavahub.com. To know more about this venture with java, please visit his site at http://www.thejavahub.com

---

Groupware: What Works the Way Businesses Do?

GroupwareThe internet is full of 1.5 million to 7 million... Read More

The Religion And Philosophy Of Small Internet Business

I have always had a tendency to focus on the... Read More

Partitioning, Formatting and Reinstalling in Windows 98

Formatting and reinstalling windows 98 is very easy if you... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains version 8.5: Upgrade, Customization, VBA, Crystal Reports - Highlights

Microsoft Great Plains is one of the Microsoft Business Solutions... Read More

10 Steps To Secure And Manage Your Passwords

Passwords protect your most sensitive personal, financial and business information.... Read More

Introduction To ISDN, Part II

In the previous ISDN article, we looked at how and... Read More

Great Plains Custom Development: Dexterity, VBA, SQL, Crystal, eConnect ? Overview For Programmer

Microsoft Great Plains is main Microsoft Business Solutions accounting package... Read More

Software Piracy

SOFTWARE PIRACY We regularly hear reports... Read More

Microsoft CRM Development

Microsoft CRM is CRM answer from Microsoft Business Solutions.The whole... Read More

These Items Are A Must Before Making The Decision To Purchase Any Off-The-Shelf Software

1. What determines the software price? Is it Per Seat... Read More

Causes of ERP Failures

ERP is the acronym of Enterprise Resource Planning. Multi-module ERP... Read More

You Can Write Microsoft Office Program in About 60 Minutes

Microsoft Office program is a programming tool called Visual Basic... Read More

Destination: Desktop for Google

First we had the original Google search that evolved into... Read More

Microsoft Navision and Crystal Reports - An Overview

Microsoft Business Solutions ? Navision is an integrated solution for... Read More

Great Plains Bill of Materials Setup & Customization for Process Manufacturing ? Overview

Microsoft Great Plains has full-featured Manufacturing suite of modules: Capacity... Read More

Cross-Platform Custom Software Development & Integration ? IT Strategy for Large Corporation

Microsoft Business Solutions products: Great Plains, MS CRM, Navision, Axapta,... Read More

SQL Administrator Skills Required to Support Microsoft Great Plains

Microsoft Great Plains is becoming more and more popular and... Read More

Great Plains Dexterity Customization Options ? Overview For Developers

Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular,... Read More

Groupware and Version History: Collaboration Series #1

This article is the first of a series of articles... Read More

Upgrading Great Plains Dexterity Customization ? switching to new technologies: SQL, Crystal, eConne

1. Replace Dexterity cursor with SQL Stored Procedure Dexterity... Read More

Microsoft Blues

With the advent of 'Service Pack 2' for Windows XP... Read More

PHP On-The-Fly!

IntroductionPHP can be used for a lot of different things,... Read More

Great Plains Customization ? Programming Auto-apply in Accounts Receivable

Microsoft Great Plains is one of three Microsoft Business Solutions... Read More

Crystal Reports - Geterogeneus databases: SQL Server, Oracle, Unidata, Btrieve ? Tips For Developer

Crystal Reports is the most flexible tool on the market... Read More

eConnect: eCommerce Development for Microsoft Great Plains

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has several options to enable... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Customization Recovery & Upgrade for Large Corporation

At the end of XX century, in the late 1990th... Read More

Popular Fleet Maintenance Programs

Some companies that are in need of fleet management may... Read More

Basic Tips and tricks for Windows XP

Running Applications in Compatibility Mode With Windows XP, you can... Read More

OEComplete ? A Personal Information Manager

OEComplete is a utility for managing the personal information of... Read More

Getting Patched with Windows Service Pack

Are you one of those people that keeps track of... Read More

Anti-Virus Software

Anti-virus software is used to find, remove or fix files... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains in Construction & Building ? Implementation & Customization Highlights

Microsoft Great Plains could be tuned and setup to fit... Read More

What is Preventive Maintenance Software?

Preventive Maintenance (PM) is defined as scheduled work done on... Read More