JavaTM 2 SDK v 1.4 Tools Changes

SDK Tools

This document describes some of the changes made to the tools in version 1.4 of the Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition. For links to reference pages for all the tools and utilities, see SDK Tools.

Tools changes in Java 2 SDK 1.4.1

• Three new security tools were added in the 1.4.1 release of the Java 2 platform: kinit, klist, and ktab. These tools help users obtain, list and manage Kerberos tickets.

• For changes to the javac bytecode compiler in J2SE 1.4.1, see the online release notes.

• The javadoc tool has about 2 dozen bug fixes. For more details, see What's New in Javadoc 1.4.1.

Tools changes in Java 2 SDK 1.4.0

These changes have been brought forward to subsequent releases in the Java 2 SDK 1.4 family.

• The java application launcher supports command-line options for the new Assertions Facility. New option -Xconcgc is available for invoking concurrent garbage collection on multi-processor platforms to reduce garbage-collections pauses on large heaps. On the Solaris^TM Operating Environment (SPARC^TM Platform Edition) new command-line options are available for specifying 64-bit or 32-bit operation. On all platforms, new option -Xloggc:file logs each garbage-collection event in the specified file.

• The javac byte-code compiler has a new -source option that enables support for compiling source code containing assertions. Also, default compilation is for -target 1.2. Previously, the default was 1.1. The compiler now correctly detects unreachable empty statements, as discussed in bug 4083890. Javac also recognizes the new -Xswitchcheck option that checks switch blocks for fall-through cases and provides a warning message for any that are found.

• The javadoc tool has several new tags, a dozen new options, smarter inheriting of doc comments, more control over HTML output, improvements to the Doclet API, better error messages, dozens of bug fixes, and is easier to run. For more details, see What's New in Javadoc 1.4.0.

  Downloaded separately from the SDK, the MIF doclet has had a major upgrade -- it generates API documentation in FrameMaker and PDF format.

• The native2ascii tool contains bug fixes to now correctly process source files encoded with Unicode encoding, such as the default encoding on WinNT. More specifically, the conversion code correctly processes line endings in encodings where a line-end is encoded as 2-bytes (Unicode being the most notable example). (Fixes bugs 4191313 and 4218514)

• The graphical Policy Tool utility has been enhanced to enable specifying a Principal field indicating what user is to be granted specified access control permissions.

• The idlj tool has changed the default generated files and provides new command-line options. By default, the idlj tool generates server-side bindings following the Portable Servant Inheritance Model. New command-line options enable you to continue to generate backwards-compatible server-side bindings. These changes were made to more closely align with the Object Management Group (OMG) CORBA specifications.

• The orbd tool, which stands for Object Request Broker Daemon, is new to this release. ORBD is used instead of the Transient Naming Service, tnameserv. ORBD includes both a Transient Naming Service and a Persistent Naming Service. The orbd tool is used to enable clients to transparently locate and invoke persistent objects on servers in the CORBA environment. The orbd tool incorporates the functionality of a Server Manager, an Interoperable Naming Service, and a Bootstrap Name Server. When used in conjunction with the servertool, the Server Manager locates, registers, and activates a server when a client wants to access the server.

• The servertool is new to this release. The servertool provides an ease-of-use interface for application programmers to register, unregister, startup, and shutdown a server.

• The rmic compiler has a new option to enable Portable Object Adapter, or POA support for Remote Method Invocation. The POA enables portability among vendor ORBs, among other uses. To learn more about the POA, follow the link. To enable POA support with the rmic compiler, use the arguments rmic -iiop -poa.

• There are minor bug fixes but no feature changes to other basic tools: appletviewer, jar, jdb, javah, javap, extcheck, and unregbean.

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