Countdown Starts for Java's Project Tiger 
The Java updates look to address today's developer difficulties in supporting faster and more secure coding. New features include generics, enumerated types, metadata and autoboxing of primitive types. Performance improvements integral to the new release include reduced startup time, a smaller memory footprint and Java Virtual Machine auto-tuning to drive greater overall application and development performance on the new platform.
As to monitoring and manageability, J2SE 1.5 supporters look for the new version will better prepare Java apps to be deployed on existing SMNP-based management systems. Certain Java projects have been plagued by the inability of standard management systems to monitor and manage JVM- and JMX-based code.
Also, Sun has added a Java API for XML processing via some of the more popular wrapper classes (Integer, Long, Short, Byte, and Char). Details on these Java APIs for XML are here. Release notes are also available for download.
J2SE 1.5 has been developed under the Java Community Process (JCP) under Java Specification Request (JSR) 176. To participate in the J2SE 1.5 beta
program, visit http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5. Also, Sun's master list of Java user discussion forums is available.
