JSR to remove Java features? What will be first to go?

To ensure backwards binary compatibility as Java has evolved over the past 10 years, new features have been added but never have features been removed, to avoid breaking the binary compatibility. However over time, we’ve seen the Java JRE and JDK continue to grow from each release to the next. JSR 270, the JSR for JDK 6, proposes the first API to be removed from a future release, and I believe is the first JSR to propose that something be removed from the platform intead of added.

The approach suggested is that the JSR for release N can propose for feature X to be removed in future release N+1. It is then upto the team involved in the implementation of N+1 if they want to go ahead with the feature removal. Mark Reinhold discusses in more details in his blog here.

The feature currently on the chopping block? The javax.sound.midi package. I expect some developers or users of music software on Java may be upset by this, but I don’t expect there to be much resistance on this one.

Final PS3 console design available ‘to touch’ at Lepzig Games Convention

The final production ready PS3 console made a showing at the Lepzig Games Convention in Germany last week, and providing you put on the provided white gloves so you wouldn’t get fingerprints on the unit, you were allowed to take a look at the box. This is the first time the console has been available in public and not protected behind a glass case. The console was still not playable however – this is going to come later at the Tokyo Games show later this year.

Still no concrete news whether the $600 high-end version will come with Tivo-like or media server functionality which was rumoured a long time ago, but has not been mentioned in any press for the last year or so. Maxconsole’s article however still mentions the rumour of a ‘hidden feature’…