Artima's Java

News items of interest to the Java.

Scala and XML - (Found July 2, 2008 )

Working with XML is seldom associated with joy, but a language that has native support for XML can make working with XML documents a lot more fun, writes Michael Galpin in a recent IBM developerWorks article.
http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=276&thread=229477

Syntactic Sugar: What Makes It Sweet - (Found July 2, 2008 )

While syntax extensions may not add new functionality to a language, such extensions, or syntactic sugar, can make a language more suitable for specific problem domains, writes Debasish Ghosh in a recent blog post.
http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=276&thread=229553

Donald Knuth on Multi-Core, Unit Testing, Literate Programming, and XP - (Found July 2, 2008 )

Donald Knuth, author of The Art of Computer Programming, and a pioneer in the analysis of algorithms, was interviewed by SD Times' Andrew Binstock. In the interview, Knuth shares his views on XP, unit testing, code reuse, multi-core architectures, and the future of software development.
http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=276&thread=229705

Sun Releases NetBeans 6.1 - (Found July 2, 2008 )

Sun's latest NetBeans release brings improved performance, faster startup, a preview of a PHP editor, JavaScript support, updates to the Ruby development environment, and extend integration of several Java frameworks.
http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=276&thread=229787

Applets Reloaded: New Tags and Demos - (Found July 2, 2008 )

Improved support for applets is one way Sun's Java Update 10 promises to make client-side Java developers' lives easier. Geertjan Wielenga draws attention to key new applet-related JRE features, and ponders what they may mean for the future of applets.
http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=276&thread=228560