Java Then and Now - Java - page 985

Swing's use of application rendering significantly upped the CPU load on the Java Virtual
Machine, so this release also introduced the first use of “Just In Time” (JIT) in the JVM, a
technique for transforming Java bytecode into native CPU (Intel, SPARC, PowerPC) code
for better performance.
Although java.lang.Class was included in 1.0 and gained methods such as getClass() in
1.1, further additions and the new package java.lang.reflect constituted the Reflection
API (see Chapter 23 ), providing a standard way for classes to examine (“reflect”), instanti-
ate, and manipulate other classes.
Finally, this release also introduced Java Interface Description Language, an interface-like
definition of remote methods intended for for CORBA interoperability.
There were a few minor language changes in 1.2, most notably the inclusion of the strictfp
keyword to allow non- strictfp floating-point calculations to use greater precision than the
32/64-bit IEEE-754 floating-point standard.
What Was New in Java 1.3
Released in May 2000, Java 1.3 was a smaller, more incremental release. However, it did in-
troduce another core Enterprise API, the Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI).
Another of 1.3's interesting features was the Dynamic Proxy mechanism, which provided of-
ficial support for dynamically generating proxy objects. To continue 1.2's gains in perform-
ance, the HotSpot JVM was included in the JDK.
Also introduced here were the first well-documented debugger mechanism, the Java Platform
Debugger Architecture (JPDA), and JavaSound, an API for controlling sound devices.
What Was New in Java 1.4
This section reviews some of the changes made to Java in 1.4.
Java 1.4 Language Changes
Java SE 1.4 introduced assert keyword, which allows assertion testing; testing can be
switched on or off dynamically without recompilation. The intention of assert is to encour-
age developers to write pre- and post-code assertions to verify correct input and output of