The CHOOSE executive board is pleased to invite you to the upcoming CHOOSE Forum 2003 in Bern.

------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHOOSE Forum 2003 CHOOSE Forum November 3, 2003 and CHOOSE General Assembly

"New Features in the Java 2 Standard Edition 1.5"

Speaker -------

Angelika Langer, langer@camelot.de

Abstract --------

The upcoming release 1.5 of the Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) will add a number of major and minor new language features and library extensions. The most significant addition to the Java programming language are generic types and methods. The most substantial addition to the Java platform libraries are the new concurrency utilities.

* Java Generics

A common misconception regarding generics is its comparison to C++ templates. Many people believe that Java generics are similar to C++ templates, while in fact both features have barely anything in common: C++ templates is a Turing complete language - Java generics is syntactic sugar that elides some casting. Java generics are a pure compiletime feature that is translated to non-generic Java bytecode, for reasons of compatibility with previous versions of Java.

In this tutorial, we will take a look into the proposed language feature, how it will help us improve our programs, how it is supposed to be used and where its limitations are. More specifically, we will discuss the additions made to the language itself (parameterised types and methods as well as covariant return types), changes to the platform libraries (generic collections and extended reflection) and various exciting details of generics such as the properties of type parameters (their bounds and their scope), generic methods and type parameters inference, and the translation of generics into bytecode.

* Concurrency Utilities

The Java platform provides basic, low-level primitives for writing concurrent programs, but they are difficult to use properly. Many programs become clearer, shorter, faster, easier to write, and more reliable if higher-level synchronisation constructs are used. A comprehensive library of concurrency utilities has been developed for inclusion in the 1.5 release of J2SE. This library, known as the util.concurrent package, contains thread pools, queues, concurrent collections, special-purpose locks, barriers, and related utilities. The addition to the Java platform is substantial and will change the way we will implement concurrent Java applications. This tutorial gives an overview of the new library. Enums, Autoboxing, etc.

Some smaller additions to the programming language comprise syntax for enumeration types, an enhanced for-loop, static imports, autoboxing, and varargs.

The seminar will be held in English.

Agenda for the CHOOSE General Assembly --------------------------------------

Please note that the General Assembly will be held during the CHOOSE Forum. All CHOOSE members are kindly invited to participate.

1.President's report. Activities since the last General Assembly. 2.Treasurer's report for 2002. 3.Miscellaneous.

Important notice -----------------

The seating is limited for this event. Register early! Registrations will be handled on a first come first served basis. If you intend to register on site, check availability in advance.

Up to date information about CHOOSE, and the CHOOSE Forum, can be found at the CHOOSE home page http://www.iam.unibe.ch/CHOOSE. There you will also find the necessary links of the conference location.